A HISTORY 



OF 



THE UNITED STATES 



OF AMERICA 



INCLUDING SOME IMPORTANT FACTS MOSTLY OMITTED 
IN THE SMALLER HISTORIES 



DESIGNED FOR GENERAL READING AND FOR ACADEMIES 



BV ^.' 

JOSIAH W. LEEDS. 






PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1877. 






Copyright, 1877, by JosiAH W. Leeds. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 



PAGE 

Purposes of Historical Study ^'■ 

Physical Aspect of the Country ^3 

Iceland and the Northmen ^4 

CHAPTER II. 

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

The Way Prepared ■'9 

Columbus ^ 

CHAPTER III. 

THE ABORIGINES. 

The Mound Builders ^9 

The North American Indians 34 

CHAPTER IV. 

ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA. 

The English. John and Sebastian Cabot 4^ 

Discoveries of the French 44 

CHAPTER V. 

THE SPANIARDS— THEIR CRUEL TREASURE-HUNT. 

Ponce de Leon, the Invader of Florida Si 

Discoveries and Conquests from Mexico to Peru S3 

The Florida Interior 57 

Discovery of the Mississippi . . • . ' • • • ' • -63 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE HUGUENOTS— THEIR MISTAKES AND MISFORTUNES. 

Coligny, the Huguenot Chief. Villegagnon 67 

Ribault and Laudonniere 7° 

Ruin and Revenge. Menendez and De Gourgues 75 

3 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ENGLISH VOYAGES AND FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 

PAGE 

Martin Frobisher. Sir Humphrey Gilbert ...... 79 

.Sir Francis Drake ........... 82 

Raleigh and the Roanoke Settlements ....... 84 

V^oyages of Gosnold, Pring and Weymouth 89 

CHAPTER VIII. 

COLONIZATION OF VIRGINIA. 

Jamestown, the first Permanent English Settlement .... 91 

Captain John Smith 93 

The Colony under the Government of the Virginia Company . . 97 

Slavery in Virginia 103 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF CANADA. 

De Monts. The Settlement of Port Royal 106 

Samuel de Champlain, the Founder of Quebec . . . . .110 

The Jesuit Missions 114 

CHAPTER X. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW NETHERLAND. 

The Trading-post at New Amsterdam . . . . . . .118 

The Dutch Directors and the Patroons 121 

New Sweden . . . . . . . , . . . .124 

William Kieft. Wars with the Indians . . . . . . .126 

Peter Stuyvesant. New Netherland resigned to the English . . . 131 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 

The Puritan Pilgrims. New Plymouth 135 

Massachusetts Bay Colony ......... 139 

New Hampshire and Maine ......... 141 

Roger Williams, the Founder of Rhode Island ..... 143 

The Connecticut and New Haven Settlements ..... 146 

Pequod War 148 

The United Colonies of New England 150 

The Persecution of the Quakers 153 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

MARYLAND. PROGRESS OF THE VIRGINIA COLONY. 

PAGE 

Lord Baltimore, the Founder of Maryland i6i 

Indian Troubles in Virginia. Clayborne, of Kent Island . . . 164 

Marj'land during the Protectorate, and under Charles II. . . . 166 

The Administration of Governor Berkeley, of Virginia .... 168 

Bacon's Rebellion. Lord Culpeper 171 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CAROLINA. 

The Palatine Proprietors and their Model Constitution .... 176 

The Quaker Settlements of Albemarle 179 

The Settlers at Charleston 181 

CHAPTER XIV. 

NEW YORK. NEW JERSEY. NEW FRANCE. 

The Government of the Duke of York 185 

East and West New Jersey ' . . . . 187 

Explorations of the French Jesuits. Marquette 190 

La Salle. An Iroquois War 193 

CHAPTER XV. 

NEW ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES II. AND JAMES II. 

Connecticut and Rhode Island 197 

John Eliot. The Praying Indians of Massachusetts .... 200 

King Philip's War 202 

The Colonial Charters demanded. Andros, Governor of New England 208 

CHAPTER XVI. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

William Penn and the Royal Grant 210 

The Great Treaty at Shackamaxon 212 

Philadelphia Founded 215 

Disagreements in Council ......... 218 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE COLONIES UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY. 

The English and French Colonies at War 221 

I* 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Sir William Phipps, Fletcher, Bellamont 223 

The Salem Witchcraft 226 

Maryland and Virginia 228 

John Archdale, of Carolina 230 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE WAR IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. 

Louisiana settled by the French 234 

Barbarities of the War in New England . 235 

The Tuscaroras. Slave Laws 238 

CHAPTER XIX. 

GEORGE I. A PERIOD OF FINANCIERING. 

Piracy suppressed. The Mississippi Bubble 241 

Banks and Bills of Credit 243 

War with the Norridgewocks and other Tribes 245 

CHAPTER XX. 

GEORGE II. FIRST PERIOD. 

The French War with the Natchez and Chickasaws .... 249 

The Assiento and the African Traders 251 

Georgia founded by Oglethorpe 253 

Rum and Slavery. The Spaniards and Indians 256 

The Walking Purchase. Brainerd 260 

CHAPTER XXI. 

GEORGE II. SECOND PERIOD. 

Third War with Canada. Louisburg captured 265 

The Southern Provinces. Slavesand Redemptioners. The Molasses Act 268 

Fourth Intercolonial War. Braddock's Defeat 273 

The French Neutrals of Acadie 275 

The Marquis of Montcalm 277 

David Zeisberger, the Moravian 280 

Canada conquered from the French 285 

CHAPTER XXII. 

GEORGE in. COLONIAL DISCONTENT. 

The Conspiracy of Pontiac 289 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE 

Colonial Taxation. The Stamp Act 290 

The Tax on Tea. Boston Port Bill 292 

Occurrences in several of the Colonies ....... 294 

Negotiations of Franklin in England 297 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

1775. Lexington and Bunker Hill. Canada Campaign . . . 300 

1776. The Sieges of Boston, Charleston and New York. Declaration 

of Independence 302 

1777. Burgoyne's Surrender. Philadelphia captured by the British . 306 

1778. The French Alliance. Massacre of Wyoming .... 308 

1779. Georgia Campaign. Deeds of Reprisal 311 

1780. The British in South Carolina. Arnold and Andre . . . 313 
1781-83. Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown. Peace declared . . 315 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE CONSTITUTION FORMED. ADMINISTRATION OF WASHINGTON. 

Financial depression. Shays' Rebellion 319 

The Constitution. Washington elected first President .... 323 

The Miami War. The Whiskey Insutjection 328 

CHAPTER XXV. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 

John Adams, second President. Disputes with France .... 333 

Thomas Jefferson, third President. Acquisition of Louisiana. A Duel. 

War with Tripoli .......... 336 

Machinations of Burr. Berlin and Milan Decrees. The Embargo Act 341 

The Right of Search 344 

CHAPTER XXVI. > 

WAR WITH ENGLAND DURING MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

Negotiations with England. Tecumseh ....... 348 

1812. War declared. Detroit and Niagara. Opposition to the War . 351 

1813. Operations on the Canada Frontier. Red Jacket and Cornplanter. 

Creek War 354 

1814. Battles near Niagara and Plattsburg. Washington City taken. 

Hartford Convention ....... 359 

Battle of New Orleans and end of the War 363 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

PRESIDENCIES OF MONROE AND J. Q. ADAMS. 

PAGE 

Seminole War. Florida ceded by Spain 367 

The Missouri Compromise. The Slave Trade prohibited . . . 370 

J. Q. Adams, sixth President. Internal Improvements .... 376 

Difficulties with Georgia and the Creeks. A New Tariff . . . 380 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. VAN BUREN AND HARRISON. 

Removal of the Cherokees 383 

Nullification. The Black Hawk and second Seminole Wars. Bank 

Troubles S^S 

Financial Troubles during Van Buren's Administration. Harrison . 389 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OF TYLER AND POEK. THE MEXICAN WAR. 

The North-eastern Boundary. Annexation of Texas .... 392 
War with Mexico. Annexation of California and New Mexico . . 396 

CHAPTER XXX. 

TAYLOR. FILLMORE. PIERCE. BUCHANAN. 

The Slavery Agitation 402 

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Troubles in Kansas 405 

The Scheme of Compensated Emancipation. Secession . . . 407 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

PRESIDENCY OF LINCOLN. THE CIVIL WAR. . , 412 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

Reconstruction. Impeachment of President Johnson. Alaska . . 429 

Grant's Administration. The Freedmen. Education .... 432 

The New Indian Policy 436 

The Temperance Question 443 

Arbitration and Peace 448 

A Few Statistics of Progress 454 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



The writer of the following pages recalls the fact that when 
he was a grammar-school student in the " City of Brotherly 
Love," it was the practice of the pupils in the uppermost 
class, in lieu of other regular exercises, to rehearse the wars 
of their country. For this purpose each boy was furnished 
by the principal with a memorandum book, and required to 
transcribe briefly the battles of the Revolution, and of the 
War of 1 812. The review of these notes occurred so fre- 
quently, that, while we became very proficient concerning 
the battles fought by our forefathers, we remained extremely 
ig'norant as to matters relative to the Indians (save that they 
were barbarous savages), the slaves, and other items of intrinsic 
interest bearing upon our country's welfare. 

This persistent indoctrination of warlike ideas resulted in 
producing an intensely partisan feeling, so that the very 
name of " British," or "Mexican," became a hateful sound 
to our patriotic apprehensions. Indeed, our principal con- 
cern appeared to be, to learn how much greater was the 
battle-loss in killed and wounded on the part of the British, 
than was that of the Americans. It is not using too forcible 
an expression to say, that there was begotten in our youthful 
minds something of the malignant sentiment of murderers. 

The mo7'al loss occasioned by a state of warfare, together 
with its exceeding expensiveness, we had no conception of. 
To supply, in a measure, this lack of information, and to pro- 
mote the knowledge of those things in the past and present 
history of our country which tend to its peace, prosperity 
and true renown, are the purposes of this work. The rule of 
political action recommended, may be concisely expressed by 
that vigorous Anglo-Saxon word — straightforwardness. 

Germantown, Philada., 1877. 9 



" It were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of the 
poor Indian conscience, while we make profession of things so far trans- 
cending." — William Penn. 



History of the United States. 



CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY. 



PURPOSES OF HISTORICAL STUDY. 

Although the American Union at this day appears as a 
specially brilliant constellation among the political systems 
which have been styled the Galaxy of Nations, yet not many 
generations have gone by since this hitherto hidden hemis- 
phere first became an object of historical notice, and quickly 
attracted the gaze of all the civilized world. But while our 
republic has, indeed, thus attained to so noteworthy a position 
in so brief a time, as to occupy a front rank among the na- 
tions of the earth, yet we read of other nations still more 
powerful and glorious in their outward aspect, whose suns once 
rose with splendor in the East, but which now are either sadly 
degenerated and insignificant, or else have long ago sunk into 
oblivion. 

In the pages of the inspired Scriptures we will find related 
the reason why the glory of these people waned. It was be- 
cause they were of the nations that knew not God, nor were 
concerned to observe his statutes. The seeds of gross evils 
were with them from the first, and, not being eradicated, 

II 



12 - HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

prevailed eventually to their destruction. So it was for the 
instruction and reproof of all following ages that we find de- 
tailed in Holy Writ the historical narratives of the Hebrews, 
their wars with the surrounding nations, together with the 
prophecies of the future wretched condition of them all, which 
we now witness to be so remarkably fulfilled. Hence, it is by 
the intelligent observation of such records, that the student 
of all history, "sacred and profane," will be benefited; the 
prime end of all historical inquiry being, to take note of those 
principles of social and political action which appear best 
calculated to insure the well-being and permanency of any 
people. 

It will, therefore, be the purpose of the following pages, not 
so much to seek the entertainment of the student by minutely- 
detailed narratives of military campaigns, as, while treating 
those subjects at sufficient length, to endeavor to derive some 
positive benefit from the observation of their causes and effects, 
as also to bring into prominence other public matters which 
deeply concern the well-being of the people at large. 

That historical treatise accomplishes little or no good for 
humanity which delights mainly in military manoeuvres, moving 
its kings and captains in the sight of the student like the un- 
feeling puppet figures of a chess-board, and, while vainly minis- 
tering amusement, suppresses the sad tale of utter devastation 
and woe that ever attend the track of the worldly conqueror. 

Moreover, by means of intelligent comparison, Ave should 
strive to discern how our own nation's sun or starry cluster 
(so to speak) appears to be drifting: whether we, as a people, 
by any low estimate of honor, truth, or equality of rights, 
are in danger of becoming utterly corrupt, and thus — over- 
whelmed by divine justice — should become comparable to a 
faint nebula, scarcely discernible in the political firmament; 
or, on the other hand, whether it appears our concern to 
elevate religion, peacefulness, and every good work, that 



PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 



13 



thereby we may continue increasing in prosperity, and so 
exemplify to every nation that it is indeed '■'■righteousness that 
exalteth a people." 

PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 

Before touching upon the particulars of our country's his- 
tory, let us first obtain a broad geographical view of the land : 
simply its prominent physical characteristics of mountains and 
plains, of rivers and forest-areas. Looking at the centre 
section, lying between its right and left mountain-barriers, — 
the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountain range, — we see the 
Mississippi river, with its great tributaries, appearing like a 
mammoth tree, though overmuch developed on the left, 
where the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Red rivers extend 
their branches. On the right, spread out the Illinois and the 
Ohio, with the Tennessee and the Cumberland. 

Eastward of the Alleghanies, passing over a rather narrow, 
undulating country, is the nearly parallel range of the Blue 
Mountains; and beyond the latter, a broad margin to the 
Atlantic Ocean; while on the west, beyond the Rocky Moun- 
tain chain, we find a wide extent of mostly flat or desert 
country to the Sierra Nevada and Coast Mountains, and then a 
narrower margin between these latter and the Pacific Ocean. 

Before European nations encroached upon the domain of 
the aborigines, the aspect of the country east of the Missis- 
sippi was vastly different from the appearance which it pre- 
sents at this day. If, with our eye, we follow up the trunk of 
the great tree which we have imagined, to where the Ohio 
branches off on the right, thence along the latter to the 
neighborhood of Cincinnati, across to Lake Erie and down 
the St. Lawrence to the sea ; then follow around the Atlantic 
and Gulf coasts to the place of beginning at the Mississippi's 
mouth, we will have measured the bounds of what was in that 



14 



HISrORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



day a dense and almost uninterrupted forest. Between the 
Ohio river and the upper lakes, however, were some intervals 
of land destitute of woods, and these open spots increased in 
number and size as one proceeded westwardly, until, in the 
country of the Illinois, the forest and the plain became nearly 
equal in area. 

Beyond the Mississippi, the change which has transpired 
would not be so notable. Here the prairies absorb more and 
more of the woodland, until there is reached that immense 
plain, which, bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains, 
extends from the Arctic Sea down to the Mexican Gulf, with, 
in many places, only narrow belts of timber along the banks 
of the rivers and lesser water-courses. Here the buffiilo — ■ 
which also, in limited numbers, were found east of the Mis- 
sissippi even to the Alleghanies — ranged in great herds, afford- 
ing a ready subsistence to the tribes of native hunters. In 
the secondary ridges and intervening valleys, the Parks of the 
Rocky Mountain region, forest land again appears, but beyond 
those mountains is a vast extent of prairies and desert. There 
were no buffLvlo here, and the population was sparse; the 
salmon of the rivers, and various species of native roots were 
the principal articles of food. But on the Pacific slope of 
the Sierra Nevada, the climate is mild and equable, the soil 
fertile, and, as a consequence. Vegetation is luxuriant, and the 
timber is of exceptionally large growth and plentiful. 

It is scarcely necessary to say to the teacher of history, or 
to any appreciative student, that the open atlas is an aid to 
the retention of many facts, such as ought not to be neglected. 

ICELAND AND THE NORTHMEN. 

Although it is customary to say that "America was dis- 
covered by Columbus," yet the claim to the accomplishment 
of that historical event belongs rightly to the Northmen. 



875] ICELAND AND THE NORTHMEN. 15 

Nevertheless, many who are unwilling to disturb the former 
accepted accounts, profess to disbelieve the relations of the 
Northmen, however reasonably-reliable the presented facts 
may appear. At the same time it must be equally allowed, 
that the effective discovery of the land — that which transpired 
in such a manner and at such a time as to bring about positive 
valuable knowledge of the new continent, followed by a flow 
of people towards it and its permanent occupation — was the 
re-discovery by Columbus. 

Respecting the Northmen, their occupation of Iceland, and 
the means by which their knowledge of a great country west 
of that island was brought about, the following brief account 
may find a proper place in this introductory chapter. It is 
chiefly from the Icelandic Sagas that the very imperfect nar- 
rative which we novy possess of those occurrences is gathered. 
The Sagas are poems or tales, first recited by the native bards 
or Saga-men, and afterward collected in more permanent 
form by the historians Ari Frode, Sturleson, and others. 

The island of Iceland, with an area of thirty thousand 
square miles — about equal in size to the state of Maine — is 
situated in the Atlantic Ocean, two hundred miles eastward 
from Greenland, and nearly three times that distance west of 
Norway. Although usually accounted as appertaining to the 
European continent, it properly belongs by position to America. 
It was occupied a.d. 875, by a colony of Norwegians under 
the leadership of Ingolf, who sailed away from their native 
land to escape the imperious sway of the Viking, Harold 
Harfager — the Fair-Haired. The companions of Ingolf, and 
the jarls or noblemen who shortly followed his example, were 
men of high descent, of considerable intelligence, and pos- 
sessed of means, but appear to have been gifted with roving 
or piratical propensities which were not agreeable to the wishes 
of the Norwegian viking. Of these jarls were Rolf, who 
sailed to France and founded the Norman power there ; and 



1 6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [985 

Ejnar, who colonized the Orkneys; and similarly, those who 
settled the other adjacent island groups — the Shetlands, the 
Faroes, and the Hebrides. 

The Celts, however, seem to have dwelt in Iceland awhile, 
previous to 875, for we are told by the historian Frode : "There 
were here Christian people, whom the Northmen called /^/^j, but 
they afterwards went away, because they would not be here among 
heathens ; and left behind them Irish books, and bells and croziers, 
from which it could be seen that they were Irishmen." 

More than a hundred years after the settlement of the 
island, in a.d. 985, Eric, surnamed the Red, having been 
declared an outlaw in consequence of the fatal result of a dis- 
pute in which he became engaged, left his country in a ship, 
with a it'fi adherents, and, sailing westward, came to the coast 
of Greenland : calling it by that title, because, as he ob- 
served, "people will be attracted thither if the land has a 
good name." Upon the news of this discovery reaching 
Iceland, Biarni, a man of a bold and adventurous spirit, set 
sail for the same region, but being driven out of his course, 
towards the south, discovered yet other lands, which were 
doubtless parts of Nova Scotia and New England. 

In 994, Leif, the son of Eric — called also Leif, the Lucky 
— with thirty-five men, sailed south from Greenland, and 
landed on a coast, which, from the description of it given in 
the Saga, is believed to have been the south-eastern section of 
Massachusetts. Here were found great abundance of grape- 
vines, and so the land was named Vinland, the good. To 
Nova Scotia was given the name of Markland ; to Newfound- 
land, that of Helluland. 

Within the succeeding twenty years, this first expedition 
was followed by others to the same shores, under the direction 
of Thorvald and Thorstein, other sons of Eric, and by that 
of Freydis, his daughter. Thorvald having imprudently pro- 
voked the natives or " skrellings," as the Northmen styled 



1005] ICELAND AND THE NORTHMEN. 17 

them, suffered death at their hands. The voyage of Thor- 
finn Karrlsefne (ancestor of the sculptor Thorwaldsen), who 
appears to have sailed several degrees farther south, was the 
most notable. 

It is remarked of these early discoverers of America, that they 
were merchants, their vessels being called " Kaupskip" or trading- 
ships. Sea-roving had been almost entirely discontinued by the 
Northmen before the voyages of Biarni and the descendants of 
Eric ; and all the American expeditions which are related in the 
Sagas, were undertaken either for the purpose of discovering new 
lands, or of making settlements in, or trading with, countries which 
had already been discovered. They were by no means ignorant of 
such sciences as geometry and astronomy, — being taught to meas- 
ure time by the sun, by day, and by the stars at night, to reckon 
the course of the heavenly bodies, and such other studies as were 
more especially adapted for service in a sea-faring life. 

After nearly four centuries of independent existence, under 
the rule of its own chiefs, Iceland became subject to Norway. 
The withering blight <:>{ party -feeling ^iWxoh had long prevailed 
in the land rendered its conquest no difficult matter. "Thus 
did all the noble sentiments generated by equal laws, an 
independent position, high descent, and intellectual endow- 
ment, sink beneath the angry and narrow-minded conflict 
of private interest and personal animosity." 

Very little mention is to be found of the newly-discovered 
country subsequent to the accounts given by the sons of Eric, 
although allusion is made to the re-discovery of Helluland, 
about 1285, and there is also the account of a voyage in 1347 
to Markland, whither the Northmen came for timber. Of 
Greenland, we are told that a bishop, also named Eric, was 
sent thither in the 12th century to attend to the erection of 
chapels; and that, in 1498, a brief was issued by Pope 
Nicholas V. concerning the nearly exterminated church in 
that land. But the country was scarcely heard of thereafter 
until the year 1721, when the pious and persevering Hans 

2* 



1 8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1721 

Egede established a mission-station on the west coast. At 
present, a i^yn similar stations of the United Brethren are the 
only settlements on that inhospitable shore, where only an 
occasional whaling-ship, or Arctic explorers in quest of an 
open polar sea, seek its ports of refuge in stress of weather, or 
when baffled in a bootless search. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

1492— 1512. 



THE WAY PREPARED. 

The darkness of superstition, the clouds of error and igno- 
rance, with the consequent lack of a pure religion and of 
right-ordered living, which prevailed over Europe during the 
period from the 5th to the 14th centuries, have earned for 
that era the title of The Dark Ages. But this sad condition of 
mental and spiritual gloom witnessed a wonderful awakening 
to the light, when the Art of Printing was given to man, and 
when, shortly afterward, the beams of the Reformation burst 
upon a world, struggling for escape from the domination of 
error and of priestly intolerance. 

It was in the midst of this improving change in the world's 
civilization that the continent of America was discovered. 
What the Northmen knew of it was gathered at a time when 
that knowledge, scant and hazy withal, lacked the means of 
ready dissemination — the press of the printer. But now, in 
the fifteenth century, there had arisen a spirit of inquiry and 
of enterprise, which was fanned into a flame of emulation 
when the existence of a new world was, in the ordering of the 
Almighty, made known through the agency of the navigator, 
Christopher Columbus. 

Yet, it was not emulation alone — the thirst for discovery — 
which was excited by the revelation. There was a thirst for 

19 



20 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1492 

gold as well. The imaginations of men had been set aglow 
by the captivating stories of the travelers Mandeville, Marco 
Polo, and others, and hence, were actively alive to rumors of 
far-away regions where all precious stones and metals might be 
found in abundance. Lovely visions of Cathay, of the land 
of Ophir and of "farthest Ind," were much in the minds of 
maritime people. The Azores and the Madeira Isles had been 
found, outlying on the sea, while down the African coast for 
many a league the vessel of the navigator had southward 
sailed, and still the land and the lapping sea stretched bound- 
less before him. But now, possessed of the mariner's priceless 
boon — the compass — surely he need not to cling forever to 
the shore and the well-known land, but might, at his will, sail 
westward whither his eyes and his thoughts had so long been 
wistfully turned. 

The crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which had 
opened to the people of Europe the knowledge of the refined and 
wealthy nations of the East, had also raised their notions of do- 
mestic luxury and of adornment. By becoming sharers in the riches 
of the Orient, they would thus be enabled to gratify these newly- 
acquired tastes and desires. 

The spirit of maritime discovery was greatly fostered through 
the persistent efforts and liberal aid of Prince Henry, of 
Portugal : so much so, indeed, that in consequence of the 
substantial results, largely due to his endeavors, the kingdom 
of Portugal, from being one of the least of the nations, sud- 
denly arose into prominence. He drew around him the chief 
men of science, and, in order that their learning might be made 
practically useful, established a naval college and observatory, 
wlierein known facts in geography and navigation were re- 
duced from their previous crude shape to an intelligible sys- 
tem. Much improvement was likewise devised in the con- 
struction of maps. Material for the latter work was constantly 
accruing, from the reports brought back by the numerous 



1492] COLUMBUS. 21 

expeditions which he fitted out, to explore, and to collect 
authentic information of, the African coast; though it appears 
that the traffic in slaves and the barter for gold, soon became, 
with the mercenary ones, chief objects of enterprise. 

Prince Henry has been called the "father of modern geo- 
graphical discovery;" and it is not unlikely that a desire to 
engage in similar exertions gave to the efforts of Columbus 
an encouraging impulse, or, perhaps, prompted his great un- 
dertaking. Of Prince Henry's accomplished work, it has 
been remarked, that "all this was effected, not by arms, but 
by arts; not by the stratagems of a cabinet, but by the wis- 
dom of a college. It was the great achievement of a prince, 
who had well been described 'full of thoughts of lofty 
enterprise, and acts of generous spirit' — one who bore for his 
device the magnanimous motto, ' The talent to do good' — the 
only talent worthy the ambition of princes." 

COLUMBUS. 

Christopher Columbus, or Colombo, the son of Dominico 
Colombo, a wool-comber of Genoa, in Italy, was born about 
the year 1445. Historians have proof that he was " honorably 
connected ;" but, as it is pretty well conceded that title and 
wealth do not necessarily convey merit, we will not stay to 
examine whether his ancestry was or was not of noble lineage. 
Having an early and decided inclination for the sea, his edu- 
cation was such as to fit him for a maritime life ; for, besides 
the ordinary studies of youth, he received, at the University 
of Padua, instruction in geometry, geography, astronomy, and 
navigation. At this seat of learning, however, he did not 
remain long, but soon was afforded opportunity to apply in 
practice the lessons he had learnt, being scarcely fifteen years 
of age when he entered upon a nautical career. 

This early and irresistible inclination for the sea, Columbus 



2 2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1492 

subsequently attributed, and perhaps correctly, to an impulse 
from the Deity, inciting to the accomplishment of an ordained 
high purpose. In his character there was blended with con- 
siderable piety, an unquestioning belief in, and veneration for, 
the church and creed in which he was educated. In purpose 
he was resolute and enduring; and, although of a naturally 
irritable temper, it was softened by his simplicity and mag- 
nanimity of spirit. He was tall of stature and of commanding 
presence, and his features, though long, and the nose aquiline, 
partook of a gentle gravity. Especially noticeable, in an 
Italian, must have been his hair, which was, we are assured, 
nearly white before he was thirty years of age. 

His first experience, in entering upon a sea-faring life, was 
to accompany a naval expedition which was fitted out at Genoa 
by an Italian duke, to make descent on the kingdom of Na- 
ples. For a number of years following, he was variously en- 
gaged in commercial, exploring, and, perhaps, also less peaceful 
pursuits, up and down the Mediterranean and in other waters ; 
and among other and then remote places visited, it is believed 
that he went to Iceland, where vague tales of the Northmen's 
discoveries may have had somewhat to do in influencing his 
future course. 

Finally, in 1470, he came to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, 
but having married the daughter of one who had been a sea 
captain in the service of Prince Henry, and had been rewarded 
by appointment to the governorship of one of the Madeira 
Isles, they removed thither — Columbus earning a livelihood at 
map-making. In the meantime he was eagerly alive to any 
evidences of the truth of the supposition, which had become 
a fixed conclusion in his own mind, that the figure of our 
earth was, in reality, of a nearly globular shape — and not, as 
had been assumed by the world at large, a flat surface — and 
hence, that there must undoubtedly be a way by which, sailing 
westward, he would reach the shores of India. The extent 



1492] COLUMBUS. 23 

of the Asiatic continent, described in such glowing terms by 
Marco Polo and other travelers, he appears to have consider- 
ably exaggerated, for he had no expectation of another land 
intermediate to the west, between Europe and Asia, 

But with these strangely wild and extravagant ideas — as they 
were then esteemed to be — he could make but little headway 
with the geographers and men of science of that time. His 
first application for assistance to demonstrate the truth of his 
theory, was to the senate of his native Genoa. This being 
unsuccessful, he next presented the matter to King John, of 
Portugal, who, finding the problem too deep for his wits to 
fathom, very conveniently referred it to a committee on geo- 
graphical affairs, for their consideration. But no favorable 
report came from the committee. Disheartened, but undis- 
mayed, by these failures of his scheme, in 1485 he quitted 
Lisbon for Spain, and having applied to some nobles of the 
court, one of them became sufficiently interested in the matter 
to favor him with a commendatory letter to Isabella, the queen. 

It was an inauspicious period for the success of the object — 
it being a time of war with the Moors — and so the application 
was referred by Ferdinand, the king, and Isabella, to Talavera, 
the queen's confessor. The latter, willing to divide the re- 
sponsibility of passing judgment upon so abstruse a problem, 
summoned a junta of cosmographers, who met the " heret- 
ical" assumption of Columbus with many theological refuta- 
tions, ridiculing his theory of the spherical shape of the 
earth, and, furthermore, cited the weighty authority of the 
fathers of the Church against "the foolish idea of the exist- 
ence of antipodes J of people who walk opposite to us, with 
their heels upward and their heads hanging down ; where 
everything is topsy-turvy, where the trees grow with their 
branches downward, and where it rains, hails, and snows 
upward." Wherefore the junta decided against countenancing 
any such erroneous and dangerous notions. 



24 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1492 

Several years had now elapsed in this fruitless work of 
solicitation, and several times Columbus was about to carry 
his suit to France, but upon each occasion was stopped by 
friends who had become persuaded of the correctness of his 
statements and the practicability of the scheme, and were 
loth that any other country should gain the honor of the 
undertaking. At last one of these presented the matter so 
forcibly to the queen that her consent was given, and the 
requisite means furnished without any farther delay ; there 
also being conferred on Columbus the present title of Admiral, 
and the prospective one of Viceroy of all the countries which 
he might discover. Three vessels were equipped, provisioned 
for one year, and supplied with ninety mariners, — thirty ad- 
venturers also accompanying the expedition. These vessels, 
be it said, were no greater in size than a large modern yacht, 
or medium-sized sloop; the largest one only — which was 
called the Santa Maria, and was the one in which Columbus 
sailed — being decked throughout. The other two, known as 
caravels., were called the Pinta and Nina. 

It was the third day of the 8th month (August), in the 
year 1492, that Columbus, with his little fleet, sailed away 
from the port of Palos, in Spain. They were detained a few 
days at the Canary Isles to repair one of the vessels ; then 
continued on their westward course over the strange, untraveled 
sea. When eight days from the Isles, two tropical birds were 
seen ; then they entered immense plains of sea-weed, hundreds 
of miles in width, when the mariners thought they had come 
to shallow water, but the bottom was thousands of feet below, 
and far too deep for their longest lines to fathom. Again 
there were birds seen, but no land appeared ; and now they 
had sailed steadily on for weeks, and the sailors were thor- 
oughly alarmed ; the needle of the compass had strangely 
varied — they were sailing and descending, as it appeared, 
down the broad ocean — and who could tell if ever a wind 



1492] COLUMBUS. 25 

would prevail to carry them back again ! A mutiny a]:)peared 
for a while to be imminent, but the admiral contrived to 
soothe their fears, and to animate them with fresh hopes. 

On the eleventh day of the loth month (October), evident 
signs of proximity to land were observed — as the birds, and 
the many objects that drifted by ; and at night, Columbus, 
standing by the mast of his little craft, now eagerly and 
acutely on the watch, saw a light that moved ; and, on the 
following morning, behold, the land! It proved to.be an 
island of the Bahama group, called in the native tongue 
Guanahani, and which they named San Salvador. 

Landing on the beach, in the presence of the inoffensive, 
awe-inspired natives, they knelt and offered thanks for their 
safety and their great discovery ; then raised the figure of the 
cross, and Columbus, ^unth s7vord in hand, took possession of 
the land on behalf of the monarchs of Spain. After bartering 
with the islanders, who continued to be very pacific, they 
sailed southward and discovered Cuba, and next Hayti or 
Hispaniola. On the north-west coast of the latter island a 
fort was built, and, leaving some of his followers to keep it, 
Columbus quickly returned to Spain, to announce to the 
court, then sitting at Barcelona, the news of his wonderful 
discovery. 

Before the departure of Columbus, one of his vessels, whicli liad 
approached too near the beach, was wrecked. The native prince, 
with friendly zeal, sent out men in canoes to assist the Spaniauls \\\ 
saving their goods. He also placed guards on land to keep away 
the press of the people from even gratifying their curiosity to see 
the strange merchandise of the whites. " His subjects," says the 
historian Herrera, "participated in all his feelings, wept tears of 
sincere distress for the sufferers, and condoled with them in their 
misfortune. But, as if this was not enough, the next morning, when 
Columbus had removed to one of his other vessels, the good ]Mince 
appeared on board to comffjrt him, and to offer all that he luul to 
repair his loss !" 
li 3 



26 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1492 

Upon returning to Hispaniola, Columbus found, to his sur- 
prise, that the little fort had been destroyed, and that the 
Spaniards had been either dispersed or killed. The latter 
looked upon the islanders as unmistakable heathen, unbaptized, 
and with no knowledge of the Christian Church; but the 
pity for their ignorance, which should have been shown in 
acts of strict justice and all good-will toward them, probably 
found expression in contempt and acts of aggression, which 
the Indians had thus (as they thought, justifiably) resented. 

Neither Columbus nor his followers were inclined to submit 
to this piece of sharp retribution, however well-merited. 
Accordingly, though mustering but two hundred foot soldiers, 
twenty horse, and twenty large blood-hounds, they at once 
attacked the offending natives, who, in their turn, were 
severely punished, and great numbers of them captured and 
condemned to be slaves. However strange it may seem that 
dogs should be mentioned as constituting part of a military 
force, they were, perhaps, as formidable and destructive, when 
employed against naked Indians, as any agency of wrath that 
the invaders could use. 

From neighboring chiefs, or caciques, whether anything 
wrong was charged against them or not, tribute was exacted 
as due to the Spaniards. The country had been taken pos- 
session of in the name of tlie Spanish crown, and due returns 
must be made to the royal exchequer. 

These stringent acts, together with the fact that Columbus 
obliged the hidalgos who had come to the colony to perform 
more labor than was agreeable to their inclinations, raised up 
many enemies against him. To reply to their accusations, 
which were working him injury at court, Columbus returned 
to Spain, where he found that his honors had indeed much 
declined in the popular estimation. He still retained, how- 
ever, enough of the royal favor to be allowed to proceed on 
a third voyage, commissioned with authority to make further 



1498] COLUMBUS. 27 

discoveries. This time he came to land at the island of 
Trinidad, sailed between it and the mainland, opposite the 
mouth of the river Orinoco, and then continued on to His- 
paniola (1498). 

From here he now sent six hundred slaves to Spain. In a 
letter to the sovereigns, in which he justified his course on the 
ground that the change would be better for the souls of the 
natives, as they could thus more readily be made Christians, 
he also estimates that "in the name of the sacred Trinity" 
there may be sent as many slaves as sale could be found for 
in Spain. This traffic was against the express wishes of Isa- 
bella, who had always desired that the natives should not be 
deprived of their freedom. Yet, upon the pretext that it was 
doing God service, were the caciques subdued or forced to 
pay tribute, some in gold, others in cotton, or the bread of 
the country, while others again, being taken prisoners of war, 
were made slaves, and compelled to work in the mines, or 
sent away prisoners to Spain. 

In vivid contrast to this sad picture is that which is brought to 
view in reading a description of some of these islanders, as por- 
tiayed in an early letter, written by Columbus himself, to his royal 
patrons : " They are a loving and courteous people," he writes, " so 
docile in all things that I assure your highnesses I believe, in all the 
world, there is not a better people or a better country ; they love 
their neighbors as themselves, and they have the sweetest and 
gentlest way of talking in the world, and always with a smile." 

Columbus was probably not avaricious : the love of science 
and investigation were too deeply implanted to permit such 
sordid motives to prevail for his own benefit. But he had 
been accustomed to the slave-trade by his early voyages along 
the coast of Africa, and, doubtless from a desire to make his 
discoveries remunerative to Spain, was solicitous that the royal 
revenues should not be neglected. Still, his course did not 
meet with the approval of the Spanish sovereigns, and by the 



28 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1502 

governor who superseded him he was sent home in chains. A 
galling condition must this have been to his spirit ; but, alas ! 
how many thousands of hapless slaves since then have been 
carried over these very seas to a wretched, life-long servitude 
• — victims of a system of which Columbus himself was here 
the originator ! 

Columbus was once more reinstated in favor, and set out, 
in 1502, on his fourth and last American expedition, expecting 
to be rewarded by finding a strait through which he could 
reach the continent of Asia ; but after sailing down the coast 
of Honduras, and finding that the land bent eastward, along 
the Isthmus of Panama, he abandoned the quest. Upon his 
way thence to Hispaniola, he was wrecked upon the coast of 
Jamaica, remaining there a year before succor arrived. He 
died in 1506, at Valladolid, soon after his return to Spain. 

The conquest of the neighboring island of Cuba was accom- 
plished in 15 1 2, by Don Velasquez, one of Columbus' cap- 
tains. We are told that the Cubans were so unwarlike that 
the Spaniards experienced no difficulty in overrunning the 
island, except from a certain chief named Hatvey, who had 
fled from Hispaniola, where he had witnessed enough of the 
cruelty of the Europeans not to desire their further acquaint- 
ance. He was, nevertheless, overcome, and condemned to 
the flames. When fastened to the stake, says Las Casas, a 
Franciscan friar endeavored to convert him, promising him 
immediate admission into the joys of heaven. But with bit- 
terness Hatvey replied, that he wished not to go to a place 
where he might meet even the best of so sinful a race as were 
his persecutors ! 



CHAPTER III. 
THE ABORIGINES. 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 

The valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, was anciently- 
peopled by a race, who, from the circumstance of their having 
constructed numerous mounds of earth, have been named the 
Mound-Builders. We have no means of knowing what was 
their true national name. 

The form of these artificial mounds is mostly that of a pyr- 
amid, terraced or truncated; sometimes square at the base, or 
of other rectangular sliape, but occasionally six- or eight- 
sided ; while some of the higher ones appear to have been 
constructed with stairways winding to the summit. These 
latter forcibly recall the teocallis of Mexico and Central 
America, which were pyramids used for the worship of the 
Aztec gods, and were usually constructed of earth, with an 
exterior facing of stone, in which were rows of steps by which 
to mount to the level platform at the summit, where the sacri- 
fices were offered. Hence it is inferred that the mounds of 
the north were built by the same race, and subserved a like 
religious purpose, as those of the Mexican structures ; though 
many other conjectures as to their probable use have been 
suggested. 

Among the largest of these regular-shaped mounds is one 
at Miamisburg, Ohio, which is about S50 feet in measurement 
around the base, and 68 feet in heiglit ; one in West Virginia, 
which is over 70 ftet high, and loco feet in circumference; 

3- 29 



30 



H/SIORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



and one still larger, at Cahokia, Illinois, opposite St. Louis, 
which is 700 feet long, 500 feet wide, and 90 feet high. Their 
ordinary height, however, is from 6 to 30 feet. Near Love- 
dale, Kentucky, there is an octagonal mound, each side of 
which measures 150 feet in length. Three graded ways ascend 
from the ground to the sides of the structure. 

Another frequent form of construction is that of inclosures 
formed by heavy embankments of earth and stone, five to 
thirty feet high, and inclosing usually from one to fifty acres; 
though there are a number containing as many as four hundred 
acres. Some of them were exact'circles or squares; some com- 
prised a square within a circle, besides many other forms. Their 
use is not clearly apparent, though it is generally supposed that 
they were intended for the purpose of fortifications. Tiiese, 
as well as the mounds, are found in especially large numbers 
in the state of Ohio, where it is estimated that there are as 
many as ten thousand of the latter, and at least one thousand 
five hundred of the inclosures. In the Southern States, where 
sun-dried bricks were frequently used in their construction, 
they more nearly resemble the mound-works of the Central 
American region. 

There is likewise a third class of these antiquities, repre- 
senting a diversity of odd forms, such as animals, birds, men, 
etc., lying flat, of course, and of great size — often one or two 
hundred feet or more in length. In Adams county, Ohio, 
there is a remarkable work of this kind, which is in the shape 
of a serpent, extending in curves a fifth of a mile, and of an 
average width of tliirty feet. The tail is triple-coiled, while 
in the distended jaws there can be traced the perfect figure 
of an egg, which, in its less and greater diameters is, re- 
spectively, 80 and 160 feet. 

In Licking county, Ohio, is an interesting effigy of the same 
sort, known as the "Alligator," the extreme length of which 
is 250 feet, and the breadth of the body 40 feet. Nothing 



THE MOUA'D-BUILDERS. 



31 



has been found in it except stones and the fine clay used in 
its construction. A circular elevation to the right, covered 
with stones much burnt, seems to indicate that the effigy was 
symbolical in its signification, and that some sacred rites or 
sacrifices were performed in connection with it. 

Remains of these various constructions are found in most 
of the states of the Mississippi valley and its tributaries, from 
Pennsylvania to Nebraska in the north, and from Florida to 
Texas in the south. They are also reported to have been 
found at the Bute Prairies in Oregon, and along the Gila and 
Colorado rivers of Arizona, though that these works are iden- 
tical in construction with the others, appears to need confir- 
mation. Where St. Louis now stands, the land was dotted 
over with many mounds, and on the Illinois shore, across the 
river, in what is known as the American Bottoms, there are to 
be seen some of the largest yet discovered. 

In the canon country of south-western Colorado, some very inter- 
esting discoveries pertaining to the early civilization of America 
have been recently brought to light by the U. S. Scientific Exploring 
Expedition in charge of Prof. Hayden. Living in a region where 
rock abounded, the constructions of the early dwellers in that land 
were essentially different from those of the inhabitants of the' allu- 
vial basin of the Mississippi. 

Ernest Ingersoll, naturalist of the expedition of 1874, rejiorts : 
" We first found in the canon of the Rio Mancos, mounds of earth 
concealing piles of earthenware, masonry, and strewn with frag- 
ments of pottery, ornamented by imprinted designs on the outside, 
and glazed and painted within. Then the mounds became more 
numerous, and clustered into villages ; vestiges of ancient walls of 
regularly-cut stone, and round towers in an excellent state of preser- 
vation, together with the remains of underground workshops, ap- 
peared. These were in the villages, and recorded the prosperous 
condition at that time of this ancient people when those fertile river 
bottoms blossomed and bore fruit in abundance." 

From the fact of the existence of these great and numerous 
wori<s, it has been inferred that the Moimd-Builders were a 



32 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



more settled and civilized nation than was ever the present 
race of Indians ; also, that, unlike those nomadic tribes, 
whose chief occupations have been hunting and fighting, 
the Mound-Builders were a peaceful and eminently agricul- 
tural people. They were a race not clad in skins, as were 
the Indians, but in woven garments made of a material re- 
sembling hemp, and of a uniform texture. No trace of their 
ordinary dwellings, which were doubtless made of wood, has 
ever been discovered. 

As to the articles — besides human remains — which have 
been found in these mounds, they comprise a variety of im- 
plem.ents, such as chisels, arrow- and lance-heads, axes and 
knives ; of ornaments, such as bracelets, beads and pendants — 
chiefly made of copper, but some also of silver, serpentine and 
porphyry; articles of pottery, tastefully designed and finished; 
plates of mica and discs of hornstone ; also pipes in quantity, 
which proves them to have been great smokers. These pipes 
were not made of the well-known pipestone of Minnesota 
which the present Indians use, but of a fine porphyry of many 
shades of color, upon which were sculptured imitations of 
birds and animals and of the human face and head. 

They were probably not worshipers of idols, as they have 
left us no figures which appear to have been intended for such 
use, nor any of the full form of man. Many of the mounds 
contain ashes, and bones charred or decayed, indicating that, 
whatever other purposes they were intended to subserve, they 
were at least frequently used as places of sepulture. Some of 
the copper articles referred to above, which, being all-metal, 
were worked into the desired shapes without smelting, are 
known to have come from mines on Lake Superior, inasmuch 
as they exhibit the peculiarity pertaining to the ore found 
there, of containing blotches and granules of silver. This 
surmise has been amply corroborated of late years, by the 
discovery of great numbers of ancient mining places upon the 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 



33 



long Keweenaw Point of Lake Superior, where most of the 
copper from that region is even now mined. 

By various theorists, the Phoenicians, the Hindoos, and the 
Egyptians, have each been thought to be the parent-race of the 
Mound-Builders, while there have been those who claimed 
them to be descendants of the "lost tribes of Israel." It is 
believed by many investigators that they came from Mexico 
and Central America, and, spreading northward, established 
communities upon both sides of the Mississippi ; that they lived 
several centuries in the land until they were either extermi- 
nated or pressed back the way they came, by the ancestors of 
the present race of Indians, descending from the north. It 
is also thought that a remnant became incorporated with the 
Indians and formed tribes, of which the Mandans and the 
Natchez have been cited as instances, on account of some 
exceptional peculiarities in color, manners and customs. 
' Equally conjectural is any statement as to the time that 
they existed in the country previous to the coming of the 
Europeans, that period having been variously estimated at 
from five hundred to two thousand years. Every skeleton 
which has been exhumed, has been found in a condition of 
extreme decay; so much so, indeed, that any attempt to 
restore the skull or any considerable part of the skeleton, has 
been found quite hopeless. It is asserted that there is but a 
single skull which has been taken out and preserved entire. 
Another proof of their antiquity is afforded by the age of trees 
found growing on the mounds, trees of several centuries' 
growth being common. The trunk of one which was observed 
on a mound at Marietta, Ohio, contained eight hundred rings 
of annual growth. 

The epoch of the Mound-Builders' occupancy constitutes 
a field for antiquarian research, well worth the attention of 
the American student. 



34 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



When the American islands and continent were first dis- 
covered, Coltimbus and his immediate successors supposed 
that they had arrived upon the eastern shores of the continent 
of India, and hence they called the natives Indians. The 
error was not discovered until it was too late to change the 
name. 

The origin of the race of copper-colored Indians is as 
much veiled in obscurity as is that of the Mound-Builders. 
In personal appearance they much resemble the nomadic 
tribes of eastern Siberia, so that it has been supposed that they 
are, as to origin, the same people — that they crossed to this 
continent by way of Behring's Strait, or the Aleutian isles, 
or across some part of the narrow sea separating from Asia 
— and that, proceeding south-eastwardly in quest of a milder 
climate, they eventually displaced the less hardy Mound-' 
Builders, in the same way that the Goths of Europe overran 
the empire of the degenerate Romans. In support of this 
belief, is adduced a very prevalent tradition among the Indian 
tribes that their ancestors came from a far-off region in the 
Northwest; and this tradition is accepted as true by some 
who have studied these people most carefully. 

It is the testimony of ethnologists that the red men belong 
to the Mongolian type of the human race, — the same as the 
Chinese and the Tartars, — and that all the tribes, separated 
though they mostly are by differences in language, have de- 
scended from a common source. Although it is true that 
there is seldom any noticeable correspondence between the 
words of the different Indian dialects, yet it is from the evi- 
dence of a marked uniformity in i\\e grammatical structure o{ 
all these apparently diverse languages that we find proof of 
the common origin of the tribes. This evidence is quite as 
reliable as is that derived from similarity of complexion and 



THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



35 



features. Exceptions to this conclusion are perhaps to be 
found in certain Californian tribes, whose language and facial 
characteristics seem to betoken a Malay derivation. 

The nomadic habits of these various tribes, and the fact of 
there being no systematic interchange of commodities between 
the families or clans to bind them together, will explain how 
it happened that the race soon ceased to be homogeneous, 
such as the agricultural Mound-Builders appear to have been, 
and to have separated into many tribes, each of them speaking 
a dialect of its own. 

Hatchets shaped out of stone must have proved poor in- 
struments with which to fell the trees of the forest, while 
wooden hoes made the tillage of the stump-covered clearings 
a laborious work for the women, to whose lot it chiefly fell ; 
so the red men's chief occupations, when not on the war- 
path, were hunting and fishing, athletic games and gambling, 
and the construction of bark canoes and their rude weapons 
of war and of the chase. Far from what are called "civil- 
ized" were these rough weapons, — the war-club, the tomahawk 
of stone, the flint headed arrow. Indian-corn and tobacco, 
squashes and beans, were the chief products of their limited 
husbandry. Their simple wigwams or lodges were chiefly 
formed of a framework of poles, bent together at the top, and 
covered with skins ; or else were huts overlaid with bark. 

The Indians used no written language, but sometimes ex- 
pressed their meaning by delineating natural objects upon 
wood, bark, or stone. It was by means of strings of wampum 
that they kept a record of their treaties. When the envoys 
of one nation met in council the chiefs and head-men of 
another, their memory would be refreshed by the use of belts 
of wampum or a bundle of little sticks, each belt or stick 
representing separate parts of the speech to be delivered. 
Hence these envoys were not usually the chiefs of any tribe, 
but were chosen for their power of clear and forcible expres- 



36 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

sion. A herald carried with him the pipe of peace, and was 
thus allowed safe passage through the countries of hostile 
tribes. 

The tribes were subdivided into clans or bands, each of 
which had its symbolical designation, called the totem, which 
was generally a bird or an animal, and was analogous to the 
shield-device among more cultured nations. Thus a tribe 
would be divided off into Wolves, Bears, Turtles, Crows, 
Eagles, etc. As a peculiar accompaniment of this separation, 
it was not allowable for a man and woman of the same clan 
to intermarry, notwithstanding there might be no trace of 
consanguinity between them. A "Turtle" brave could not 
have a "Turtle" for wife, but with perfect propriety he might 
wed a " Dove." 

They believed in a Great Spirit, a power superior to all 
others, but it was a belief very much corrupted by super- 
stitious additions of special deities of the forest and stream. 
These numerous inferior spirits or ministering angels were 
called inanitous — there being a manitou for each kind of ani- 
mal, for the lakes and rivers and other objects in nature, all 
of which must be propitiated by gifts, such as beaver-skins, 
tobacco, meat, or anything else which the Indian highly es- 
teemed. In place of priests there were "medicine men" 
and sorcerers, professed dreamers and interpreters of dreams. 
If an Indian was sick, the doctor would often give his patient 
a good shaking, besides pinching and beating him, whooping 
and howling at him, and, in order to expel the evil spirit, 
would perhaps rattle a tortoise-shell at his ear. Then giving 
him a severe bile, sufficient to make the blood flow, he would 
exhibit with triumph any little thing, as a bit of wood or 
bone, which he had hidden in his own mouth, but which he 
would claim to be the cause of the disease that he had now 
happily frightened away. 

They readily affirmed a belief in the immortality of the 



THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIA AS. 



37 



soul, — that for all skilful hunters and great warriors, as well 
as for the merely well-behaved, there was an after-death transi- 
tion to lands of limitless forest, of boundless prairies, and 
of beautiful streams, — the "happy hunting grounds" of the 
hereafter. 

Various natural peculiarities, as well as likeness of language, 
permit us to classify the many different tribes into a few allied 
groups. We will state, as nearly as the ascertained facts will 
warrant, what portions of the country were occupied by the 
several groups previous to their displacement by the Saxon 
and Latin races of the old world ; though it is true that a 
number of the tribes were in a restless, changing state — one 
giving place to another — when the Europeans first appeared 
upon the scene. 

Farthest northward were the Esquimaux, who then (as they 
now do) occupied the shores of all the seas, bays, inlets, and 
the islands, from Greenland to Behring's Strait. "Eaters of 
raw fish" their name means, and inasmuch as it is their occu- 
pation to be fishers — for the seal affords them not only food 
and clothing, but light and fuel as well — their habitations of 
ice-blocks or drift-wood do not extend farther than a hundred 
miles inland from the shores. 

The Athapascas occupied the territory from Hudson's 
Bay westward to the Rocky Mountains — the Missinnipi or 
Churchill river being their southern boundary. They com- 
prised but a kw sparse tribes of hunters and trappers, who, 
when the English Hudson's Bay Company was organized, 
maintained a thriving business by disposing of their peltry at 
the trading-posts. 

The next group southward, the Algonquin-Lenape, was the 
largest of all, their territory comprising most of the region 
from Hudson's Bay southward to the Ohio river, and from 
the Atlantic Ocean westward to the Mississippi and the Red 
River-of-the-North. The principal tribes included under this 

4 



38 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

head were the Knisteneaux and Chippeways, north of the 
Great Lakes ; in the east, the Micmacs of the lower St. 
Lawrence, the Mohicans and Narragansetts of New England, 
the Lenni-Lenape or Delawares, on both sides of the river of 
that name ; in the south, the Powhattans of Virginia, and the 
Shawnees of Kentucky ; in the west, extending from the Ohio 
to Lake Superior, the Illinois, Miamis, and Ottawas, the Pot- 
tawattomies, and Sacs and Foxes. 

Surrounded on every side by tribes of the Algonquin- 
Lenape, was the land of the Iroquois. They included the 
Hurons or Wyandottes of Upper Canada; the Eries, south 
of the lake of the name ; but principally, the compact con- 
federacy known to the whites as the " Five Nations." These 
latter warlike tribes were located in the centre lake-belt of 
New York, and were named (from east to west) the Mohawks, 
Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The Tuscaroras, 
who for awhile had located south of the Powhattans of Vir- 
ginia, came northward in 17 13, and united with the others. 
The fighting propensities of the Five Nations might well earn 
for them the title of the Indian Spartans. Isolated they were, 
in the midst of the Algonquins, who beat against them only 
to be repelled, like baffled waves upon a rock-bound coast ; 
while they, in their turn, becoming the aggressors, soon all 
the country for hundreds of miles south and west of their 
strongholds among the lakes was overrun, and nearly depop- 
ulated by their reprisals. Ever ready to follow the war-path, 
it seemed as though they fought not so much to defend them- 
selves and their homes, as to gratify an inappeasable thirst for 
blood and savage glory. It will appear farther on, how this 
sanguinary craving was taken advantage of by both English 
and French, that it might be used for purposes of revenge by 
the one nation of whites against the other. 

The MoBiLiAN tribes, occupying the region from the lower 
Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi, comprised chiefly the 



THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



39 



Catavvbas of Carolina, the Seminoles of Florida, the Creeks, 
Cherokees and Choctaws, the Natchez, Uchees and Chicka- 
savvs. Of these, the Choctaws were the most peaceably dis- 
posed toward the Europeans. They were further advanced 
in civilization than the tribes adjacent, more considerate to 
their prisoners, and applied themselves more to agriculture 
than to the chase. The Natchez tribe, near the present city 
of that name, had a wigwam-temple and sacred fire, being 
worshippers of the sun. The hereditary dignity of Chief of 
the Great Sun, descended by the female line. It is thought 
that the Natchez were a remnant of the Mound-Builders. 
The French writer, Charlevoix, says that most of the natives 
of Louisiana kept a perpetual fire in their temples. It should 
be noted, to avoid error, that the dialects of several of the 
foregoing tribes — as the Cherokees, the Uchees, and the 
Natchez — were quite distinct from each other, and those 
tribes are only here included in the Mobilian group for the 
purpose of convenience. 

West of the Mississippi to the region of the desert, were the 
Dacotahs or Sioux. Their country was included, north and 
south, between the Arkansas river and the Saskatchewan of 
British America. They comprised, in part, the Assiniboins 
of the north, the Mandans of Dakotah, the Tetons and 
Omahas of Nebraska, the Yanktons and lowas, the Kansas, 
Osages and Arkansas. Fortunately, the Indian names which 
have been conferred upon our states, rivers, etc., designate 
pretty nearly the localities where those tribes formerly existed. 
One tribe only, belonging to this family — the Winnebagoes — 
was found east of the great river, being located upon the west 
side of Lake Michigan, from near the present city of Chicago 
to Green Bay. 

Of the other large tribes, west of the land of the Dacotahs, 
there were, and are still, the Blackfeet of the upper Missouri, 
and the Crows of the Yellowstone ; the Pawnees of the Platte ; 



4° 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the roving Comanches and Apaches of the Rio Grande. The 
Blackfeet were usually at war with the Flat-heads and Snake 
Indians, belonging west of the Rocky Mountains; keeping 
guard, like watchful bull-dogs, that their salmon-eating neigh- 
bors should not hunt the buffalo. The most of these tribes, 
as well as those of the Dacotahs, resided in their villages not 
over five months of the year, principally to plant and gather 
the crop of maize. Then the whole population, except those 
who trapped the beaver and other fur animals, would remove 
to the ranging-grounds of the buffalo, subsisting on the meat 
of that animal, and preserving it in quantities for future use. 

The tribes of the Northwest, beyond the Rocky Mountains, 
the Flat-heads and Snakes, the Chinooks, Walla-wallas, etc., 
exhibit a marked inferiority in stature, strength and activity, 
to their brethren east of that range. The California tribes 
have long, straight hair, and very dark complexion, and, as 
has been stated, are thought to be of Malay extraction. 

Finally, in the region of the Colorado and Rio Gila are 
the Pueblos, or Village Indians. These live in houses made 
of adobe — i.e. mud, mixed with chopped straw and sand or 
gravel — which are generally several stories in height, each 
succeeding story less in size than the one below, and reached 
by ladders on the outside, the whole forming three sides of a 
square and capable of accommodating hundreds of people : a 
village, in fact, in a single structure. As a race, they seem to 
belong with the Toltecs or Aztecs of Mexico and Central 
America. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA. 

1496 — 1542. 



THE ENGLISH: JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT. 

Columbus named the isles of the Caribbean Sea which he 
had discovered, the West Indies, being under the mistaken 
belief that they were really insular portions of that great 
Oriental Empire which, from early manhood, had existed as 
a cherished object of his thoughts. It was reserved for another 
Italian, sailing beneath the flag of England, first to behold 
since the voyages of the Northmen, the outlines of the 
American continent itself. 

An imaginary line drawn north and south in the mid-At- 
lantic, had been declared by a "bull" of the pope as dividing 
the right and title to all new discoveries thereafter to be made 
by the subjects of Spain and of Portugal — Spain to take west 
of the line, and Portugal east of it. But, other maritime 
nations did not recognize either the right or the propriety of 
being thus excluded from any country previously unknown to 
them, to which their ships might sail ; and, when found, of 
planting the standard of ownership in behalf of their respec- 
tive sovereigns. 

This highly presumptuous declaration or bull was promulgated by 

that wicked pope Alexander VI., of the notorious house of Borgia. 

It was the act of one who sat upon the throne as God's a])pointed 

vicegerent, commissioned to give away his earth; or, as a historian 

4* 41 



42 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1496 

has defined it — "Splitting this mighty planet into two imaginary 
halves, he hands one to the Spanish and the other to the Portuguese 
monarch, as he would hand the two halves of an orange to a couple 
of boys." 

The fact of this declaration is important to be kept in mind, as it 
will explain, in a measure, the barbarous treatment of the Indians 
by the subjects of those monarchs who were the pope's recipients 
of such unexampled favors. They rested the responsibility of their 
sinful acts on the so-called Supreme Pontiff, fully persuaded that he 
who could confer upon them lands and people which himself had 
neither seen nor heard of, was amply qualified to absolve them from 
the wrongs which might follow their careers of conquest. 

King Henry VII. of England would have been glad to 
secufe the services of Columbus, but failing in that, he readily 
acceded to the request of John Cabot or Kabotto, a wealthy 
merchant of Bristol, but a Venetian by birth, for a patent of 
discovery. This patent, which was granted in 1496 to Cabot 
and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, and to their 
heirs or deputies, authorized them, at their own expense, to 
fit out as many as five ships, and therewith to sail east, west, 
or northward, and to "seek out, discover and find whatsoever 
isles, countries, regions or provinces of the heathen and infi- 
dels whatsoever they may be, and in whatsoever place of the 
world soever they be, which before this time have been un- 
known to all Christians." A fifth of all the profits realized 
was to be paid to the king. 

The expedition, which was soon equipped, sailed (1496) 
from the port of Bristol, at that time second only to London 
in commercial importance. Cabot was accompanied and 
greatly aided in the undertaking by his son Sebastian, who, 
though then but twenty years of age, was a young man of 
much practical good sense. They stopped for awhile at Ice- 
land, and then continued on the voyage, hoping to make their 
way to India by a north-west passage. They came in sight of 
the main land in the high latitude of Labrador, in point of 



1496] JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT. 43 

time nearly a year before Columbus beheld the continuation 
of the same continent, as he sailed southward along the shores 
of Honduras, baffled in his quest of a south-west strait. 

The Cabots, like Columbus, were in search of some land 
of Ophir or fabled "Golden Fleece" — something that would 
dazzle the world at home with the relation of impressive 
grandeur, or, at least, of a charming novelty. But the aspect 
of the Labrador coast — the bold, rocky cliffs, and the sterile 
soil, populous only with countless sea-birds — was not very 
alluring to their expectant gaze. Besides, the line of coast 
ran not in accordance with their preconceived wish ; for, says 
Sebastian, in the simple language of the narrative, "After 
certayne dayes, I found the land runne toward the north, 
which was to me a great displeasure." They followed down 
the coast, and sailed into the bay which is now our metropoli- 
tan port; but the sailors manifesting much discontent at the 
prolongation of the voyage, Cabot reluctantly returned to 
England. 

A second patent was issued in 1498 by King Henry, but the 
elder Cabot dying in the meantime, his son Sebastian took 
charge of the new expedition, a number of merchants assisting 
in the outfit. Three hundred men, who proposed to establish 
a colony in the New World, went out in the ships — though 
these "shippes" were of no greater capacity than about two 
hundred tons each. Unfortunately for the comfort of the 
would-be colonists, they were landed too far to the nortliward. 
Cabot did not perceive why the latitude of the southern ex- 
tremity of Labrador, which corresponds to that of Bristol, in 
England, should be notably colder, and his patent did not 
give him any claim to the land south of that line. Hence he 
found upon his return to the colony, after sailing awhile along 
the coast, that his companions suffered considerably through 
the inclemency of the weather, and had taken no ste])s to 
establish themselves upon so bleak a shore wliere even the mid- 



44 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1517 

summer sun lacked a genial warmth. The demand of the 
men to be taken home was, considering their unlooked-for 
hard experience, a reasonable one; so Cabot, after having 
sailed as far southward, perhaps, as Florida, returned again to 
England. 

The king, very naturally, was not a little disappointed at 
the ill-success of this second attempt, while Cabot, failing to 
obtain another patent, pursued his researches in more southern 
latitudes, being for awhile in the service of Ferdinand of 
Spain. But his royal patron dying, Cabot went back to Eng- 
land. Henry VIII. had meanwhile succeeded to the throne, 
and by him Cabot was commissioned, in 15 17, to sail once 
more to America. This time he entered the great Bay, which, 
years after, was re-discovered and named by the navigator 
Hudson. Finding no western outlet, and the mariners, as on 
the previous occasions, complaining bitterly of the rigorous 
climate, Cabot, to avoid a mutiny, put back to England. 

Subsequently, Cabot again went to Spain, was appointed by 
Charles the Fifth to the station of Pilot-Major, and continued, 
until upwards of eighty years of age, his favorite pursuits of 
cosmography and practical navigation. No expeditions of the 
English followed Cabot's until those of Frobisher and of 
Humphrey Gilbert, sixty years later — of which due mention 
will be made in a succeeding chapter. 

DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH. 

It would hardly have been in accordance with human nature, 
as it certainly would not have been with that of the French, 
that the exploits of their neighbors in finding new worlds 
should ring in their ears, and themselves remain quiescent at 
home. Spain had found an India over the western sea, and 
was already gathering into her coffers a guilty harvest of gold : 
the ships of England, in the North Atlantic, were actively 



1498] DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH. 45 

seeking for the passage which should lead to China and" a 
hoped-for traffic bringing rich returns: Italy, in the person 
of Amerigo Vespucci, who had sailed to the southern section 
of the new hemisphere, and, realizing the fact that it was 
virtually a new world and no part of India that had been 
discovered, gave to all the continent the name of America : 
while Portugal, little kingdom though it was, had become 
famous above every nation for the extent of its discoveries, 
and its capital of Lisbon revelled in the new-found wealth. 

For in that year of mark, 1498, a Portuguese expedition 
under Vasco de Gama, continuing the exploration of the 
African coast which had been begun by Prince Henry, rounded 
the Cape of Good Hope for the first time, and sailed far 
beyond to Calicut in India. The lucrative trade in spices and 
indigo, in the rich silks, the ivory, and other captivating 
commodities of the Orient, began at once. Brazil also was 
soon afterward discovered, and became an appendage of 
Portugal; and in 1501, two caravels commanded by Gaspar 
CoRTEREAL, following in the track of Sebastian Cabot, had 
coasted along the shores of Labrador. Their visit, however, 
boded no good to the too-trustful natives, fifty or more of 
whom were captured and carried back in the vessels to be sold 
as slaves. It appeared that the Portuguese had no idea of going 
home empty-handed; for they were then, as they have con- 
tinued to be even to this day, a nation with a strong lust for 
kidnapping their fellow-creatures. The annals of the time, it 
is a relief to record, make no farther mention of any suc- 
ceeding visits by them (except as fishermen) to the North 
American coast. 

Although the banks of Newfoundland and the adjacent 
island of Cape Breton, were frequented by French fishermen 
from Brittany and Normandy, within a very itv^ years after 
Cortereal's voyage; and although the Gulf, afterwards called 
the St. Lawrence, had also been explored, and a map of its 



46 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1524 

coast-line drawn by Denys of Honfleur, a citizen of France; 
yet it was not until the year 1524 that a vessel was despatched 
thither by the royal commission — that of Francis the first. 
The command of this single caravel was intrusted to John 
Verrazzani, a Florentine. 

It is a fact, in passing, worth bearing in mind, that the first agents 
of Spain, England, and France, in their American enterprises — 
Columbus, Cabot, Verrazzani — were all Italians. The merchants 
of Venice, of Florence, and Genoa, had been the " commercial 
kings" of the Mediterranean, but now a social and political unrest 
prevailed throughout the peninsula; the prosperity of the country 
was on the wane ; and the services of many of its skilled citizens 
were, as we have seen, enlisted in behalf of other nations. Italy, 
which gave America its name, had no colony of her own to hail 
her as the "mother country." 

The vessel of Verrazzani first approached the low shore of 
Carolina, in the neighborhood of Cape Fear. Upon the sandy 
beach was a throng of wondering Indians, who presently 
pointed out a landing-place and made many demonstrations 
of welcome. It was in the early spring time, and from the 
tall forests of pine and of cypress, and the dense undergrowth 
of laurel and blossoming shrubs, there was wafted a pleasant 
perfume — or, in the words of the narrative, "did yeeld most 
sweete savours, farre from the shore." They coasted north- 
ward, always received with kindly greetings by the natives, 
but, in one place, badly requited these tokens of hospitality 
by stealing a child whom they desired to exhibit at home. 
They would have captured the mother also, had not her 
piercing outcries caused them to desist. 

Passing by the heights of Neversink, and the long jutting 
promontory of Sandy Hook, the vessel sailed up the beautiful 
bay of New York ; then continued on by the Long Island 
shore to where Newport was subsequently built, where they 
spent fifteen days, most courteously entertained by the inhabi- 



1524] VERRAZZANL 47 

tants. Again they spread their sails, slowly following along 
the rugged, irregular coasts of Maine, to Newfoundland. In 
these parts they found the natives — who were of the Algonquin 
tribes — both savage and suspicious ; they had heard of the 
deeds of the plundering Portuguese, and, as well they might, 
kept themselves aloof from Verrazzani and his crew. Hence, 
their provisions failing them, they shortly returned to France. 
From the port of Dieppe, Verrazzani wrote to the king a de- 
scription (which is the earliest now extant) of the shores of 
the present United States ; and by virtue of this narrative, more 
detailed than the accounts of the Spanish and English, did 
France lay claim, upon the pretext of discovery, to a large 
extent of territory. 

Ten years elapsed before a second expedition was sent out. 
There was a wicked rivalry of kings, that for thirty long years 
disturbed the peace of Europe — the contest between Francis the 
First and Charles the Fifth ; and now the French king, faithless 
to the promise that released him from captivity, and sorely 
beset by the wily emperor, was in too critical a plight to give 
much attention to the wilderness land in the New World. 
Nevertheless, the king assented to the solicitation of the 
admiral of the kingdom, that the time had arrived when at 
least some show of effort must be made toward colonizing his 
recently-acquired dominion of New France. 

To Jacques Cartier, a hardy mariner of St. Malo, was 
assigned the command of the expedition. Sailing from the 
port of his native town with two ships, in the spring of 1534, 
he crossed the ocean direct to the island of Newfoundland. 
The voyage was made in the short space of twenty days. 
Passing around the island, and through the straits of 'Pellisle, 
they entered the gulf, and crossed the same to the mouth of a 
great estuary — the noble river of Canada — which was ascended 
until land was plainly visible on either side. Perhaps, now 
at last had been found that broad stream which would lead 



48 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1534 

tliem to the long-sought Cathay ! They would fain have 
proceeded, but being unprepared to encounter the storms of 
winter, it was decided to postpone their explorations for the 
present, and so, the winds favoring, they turned the ships' 
prows eastward and soon re-entered the harbor of St. Malo. 

The results of this voyage re-awakened the spirit of dis- 
covery. Francis, also, having been worsted in his wars with 
the emperor of united Germany and Spain, was not averse to 
extending his dominions in other quarters as a compensation 
for the losses incurred, and as a likely means of replenishing 
the royal treasury. Besides these motives of self-interest and 
ambition, there was advanced another plausible plea, founded 
upon the heresy of Luther in Germany, and of Calvin in Swit- 
zerland and France. The losses in the Catholic fold must be 
made good by the conversion of the heathen in the New 
World. It was thus that Cartier represented the case to his 
"very Christian king," and the king readily complied with 
the wishes of the discoverer by granting him a new commis- 
sion. 

Three vessels were fitted out, and Cartier, with several 
officers and men of rank who were to accompany him, after 
they and the sailors had received at the cathedral the absolu- 
tion and blessing of the bishop, again sailed out from St. 
Malo (1535). Encountering a severe tempest the little fleet 
was separated, but eventually came together in safety in the 
straits of Bellisle. It was then that the name of St. Lawrence 
was given to a portion of the bay, though the title was after- 
ward txtended to the entire gulf, and to the great river flow- 
ing into it. This they ascended until they came to a certain 
island, now called Orleans, but styled by them the Island of 
Bacchus; for the trees with which it was thickly covered were 
all overrun with vines, upon which the purple clusters of ripen- 
ing grapes were everywhere seen. 

Leaving the vessels, Cartier and some of his companions 



1535] C ARTIER AND ROBERVAL. 49 

ascended the stream in a boat as far as the chief river- settle- 
ment of the Hurons, called in their dialect Hochelaga. With 
many demonstrations of welcome, the natives received these 
pale-faced strangers, and esteeming them to be beings of a 
superior nature, brought forth the sick, maimed and decrepit, 
for their blessing and healing. From a neighboring height, 
to which the Indians led them, the French obtained a charm- 
ing view of the majestic river, flowing between forests deep- 
dyed with the hues of autumn, and stretching far away on 
every side. This height they appropriately named Mont 
Royal or Montreal; then re-embarked, and rejoined their 
companions down the river. 

The winter came. Ice-bound in their vessels, they suffered 
greatly from the rigor of the climate, while the scurvy made 
sad havoc among them. After twenty-five men had died of 
this distemper, an Indian informed them of a cure — a decoc- 
tion of pine buds. The remedy proved effectual; and as soon 
as the river was clear of ice, being disinclined to attempt any 
settlement, they prepared to return homeward. The good 
offices of the Indians they repaid by luring several of their 
chiefs into an ambuscade, wliere tiiey were captured and hur- 
ried on board the ships. This act of treachery and ingratitude 
accomplished, they proceeded to plant the emblem of Chris- 
tianity. A cross was raised, the banner of the French king 
displayed, and Francis declared to be the rightful owner of 
the new-found territory. 

It was not until 1541, five years after the return of the 
preceding expedition, that Cartier received, with the title of 
Captain-General, still another commission. The objects of the 
new enterprise were declared to be those of discovery, settle- 
ment and the conversion of the Indians ; who are described 
as "men without knowledge of God, or use of reason." But 
as Cartier, to complete his crews, was authorized to ransack 
the prisons for thieves and other malefactors, it must be 
c 5 



50 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1542 

admitted that the means provided were not of a nature to 
spread the true gospel of peace and good-will. 

In addition to the commission of Cartier's, and superior to 
that, was one issued to the Lord of Roberval, naming him 
the Viceroy of Newfoundland, and of all the territory on both 
sides the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. But the two com- 
manders did not embark at the same time, neither did they 
act in concert. Cartier sailed first with five ships, ascended 
the St. Lawrence, built two forts, and there passed the winter. 
But the colonists were sullen and dispirited — their provisions 
failed — the natives were now hostile by reason of the previous 
treachery of Cartier — and accordingly when spring opened, 
the latter gave command to set sail for France. Near the 
Newfoundland coast, he came in sight of the vessels of Rober- 
val, inward bound, but refused to return with him. 

We need but briefly follow the fortunes of the Viceroy. A 
large barrack-castle was built where the camp of Cartier had 
been — with the winter came famine and disease — there was 
murmuring and threatened mutiny, but it was quelled by the 
iron rule of Roberval. Li the spring (1542), the remnant of 
the colony returned to France. Fifty years elapsed before the 
French renewed their purpose of founding a Canadian empire. 
We may now turn our attention to the progress of the Spanish 
conquests and colonization in America. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SPANIARDS— THEIR CRUEL TREASURE-HUNT. 

15 12— 1542, 



PONCE DE LEON, THE INVADER OF FLORIDA. 

A rabid race, fanatically bold, 

And steeled to cruelty by lust of gold, 

Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored. 

The cross their standard, but their faith the sword. 

Their steps were graves ; o'er prostrate realms they trod 

They worshipped Mammon, while they vowed to God. 

Montgomery. 

The year that was made memorable by Columbus's great 
discovery, is also marked in Spanish annals as that in which 
Granada with its royal palace of the Alhambra was conquered 
from the Moors ; and shortly after which the whole country 
became united under the sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella. 
And now the haughty cavaliers of Spain, not so much eager for 
fresh displays of their prowess as in the hope of reaping golden 
requitals for former valor, began to turn their attention to the 
new-found empire in the West. As, in their shameless quest 
for this Eldorado, they regarded neither the rights, the prop- 
erty, nor the lives of the people who then possessed the land, 
so the following chapter is in large part a recital of the ruth- 
less deeds of freebooters and marauders. Seven centuries 
of almost continuous warfare had prevailed on the Spanish 

51 



52 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [15 12 

peninsula, either between its several rival kingdoms — as of 
Leon, Castile and Aragon — or by these together against their 
common enemy the Moors ; and strange would it have been 
had training such as this j^roduced other than rough men of 
war. 

One of those who had taken an active part in the Moorish 
wars was Juan Ponce de Leon. Subsequently, he was a 
companion of Columbus in one of his voyages, and, for vari- 
ous campaign-services, at home and in Hispaniola, he was 
rewarded with the governorship of the island of Porto Rico. 
There had come to his ears the rumor of a wonder-work- 
ing fountain, of such rare, transforming virtue, that whoso- 
ever bathed in its limpid waters would thenceforth know the 
weight of years and of care no more. De Leon credited the 
marvellous tale, and prepared to seek, among the isles that 
fringe the Caribbean sea or on the mainland adjacent, for this 
potent Fountain of Youth. 

Sailing from Porto Rico in 15 12 with three brigantines, he 
cruised awhile among the Bahamas ; and on the day which is 
called by the Spaniards Pasciia Florida ("Easter Sunday") 
descried in the west a long low line of coast. Nearing the 
shore, which was fresh with the verdure of* early spring, and 
gay and fragrant with the blossoms of many flowers, he gave 
to the land the name of Florida. But the coast was danger- 
ous of approach, and there being no good harbor for his ves- 
sels, he sailed southward, rounded the point of the peninsula, 
and proceeded as far as the group of the Tortugas ; then, 
feeling doubtful of present success on land, he returned to 
Porto Rico. 

De Leon received from the Spanish king the title of Gov- 
ernor of the country which he had discovered, with the 
understanding that he should proceed to plant colonies 
therein. It was eight years before he made the attempt to 
take possession of his province. But the wishes of the natives 



1517] JUAN PONCE DE LEON. 53 

had not been consulted as to this summary disposition of their 
own property, and it is not likely that they had even so much 
as heard of the transfer. At any rate, they were altogether 
averse to receiving the strangers in their midst, armed as these 
were with murderous weapons of war. Hence it happened 
that when, in 1520, the Spaniards attempted to establish a 
settlement, they were at once beset by the natives with great 
fury, and moreover driven back to their ships. Ponce de 
Leon himself was so badly wounded by a poisoned arrow that 
he died soon after his return to Cuba. 

DISCOVERIES AND CONQUESTS FROM MEXICO TO PERU. 

Previous to the second and ill-fated expedition of Ponce 
de Leon, other important discoveries had been made of the 
countries bordering on the West Indian seas. Francisco 
Fernandez, in 15 17, sailing south-westwardly after leaving the 
]>ort of Havana, discovered the peninsula of Yucatan. Co- 
lumbus, it will be remembered, had explored the coast from 
the adjoining province of Honduras southward to the isthmus. 
Fernandez met, at the hands of the natives, with the same 
fate as did De Leon. 

The following year, a fleet under Grijalva explored the 
shores of the bay of Campeachy, west of the discoveries of 
Fernandez, and also northward along the Mexican coast per- 
haps as far as Panuco — the bay of Tampico. The inhabitants 
of these parts proved to be more confiding than those en- 
countered by Fernandez. They excited the cupidity of the 
Spaniards by tales of the magnificent empire of Montezuma 
and of the great capital city in the interior, and confirmed 
too well the story of their country's wealth by their lavish 
display of gold. This the adventurers obtained in considera- 
ble quantities, and, with much satisfaction, carried Ixick with 
them. Little thought the unsuspecting natives that they had 

5" 



54 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1519 

imparted the intelligence of their wealth to those who would 
return to rob, and even to murder them, for its possession. 

It was the next year, 15 19, that Hernando Cortez, with 
a fleet af eleven small vessels, on board of which were nearly 
seven hundred men, sailed direct from Cuba, and landed at 
Vera Cruz. His aim it was (however plausible the wording of 
the commission which he held from Velasquez, the governor 
of Cuba) both to possess himself of the certain riches of the 
Aztec empire, and to take forcible possession of the country 
for his master the king of Spain. It will help to explain 
the exceeding temerity of the Spanish commander, when 
it is stated that Velasquez countermanded his commission 
on the eve of the departure of Cortez, and thus the latter 
felt that in disobeying orders, he must either go forward or 
perish. 

On the great banner which they carried, appeared the figure 
of a large cross, with the inscription — " Let us follow the 
cross, for under this sign we shall conquer." The depen- 
dence of Cortez was much the same as was that of Mahomet : 
the first followed the cross, the other the crescent, but their 
faith alike was in the sword. 

Fire-arms not being yet in general use, most of the men 
(few of whom were of the cavalier class) were armed with 
cross-bows, swords and spears. There were also ten small 
cannon and a number of horses — the first of both ever seen 
in that country. Montezuma being informed of the prowess 
displayed by the visitors, sent command from his capital for 
Cortez and his company to depart. To make the request 
palatable, he accompanied it with rich presents of precious 
metals, of pearls and other precious stones, bales of cotton 
cloth of exquisite fineness, and many articles of surprising 
brilliancy and art. Cortez had grimly and truly remarked to 
the Mexicans, that "the Spaniards had a disease of the heart 
which could only be cured by gold." But these magnificent 



I5I9] CORTEZ. 55 

gifts, borne to the invaders on the shoulders of a hundred 
men, naturally excited their cupidity to the utmost. 

Being joined by several thousand warriors of Tlascala, a 
republic hostile to Mexico, Cortez made his way triumphantly 
to the capital, and was there courteously received by Monte- 
zuma. But the kindness of the Aztec was repaid with perfidy 
by the "Christian," who seized him in his palace, and kept 
him more than six months a prisoner. In the struggle which 
ensued, Montezuma was wounded, and died soon afterwards ; 
but the Spaniards were driven from the city, with the loss of 
all their muskets and artillery and many of their men. This 
reverse obliged the survivors to retreat ; yet, being attacked 
by a great host of Mexicans, who had pursued them, these 
latter were defeated. Whereupon the invaders, having re- 
ceived some reinforcements of Tlascalans, as well as of their 
own countrymen, were enabled to re-enter the city after it had 
withstood a siege of three months. Guatimozin, the nephew 
and successor of Montezuma, was treated with great severity 
by the Spaniards, and-finally put to death. The ancient, and 
once glorious empire founded by the Toltecs, had now become 
a province of Spain. It is true, the religious observances of 
the Mexicans involved a loathsome, sanguinary rite — that of the 
sacrifice of human victims upon the high altars of their pyra- 
mids or teocallis; and this, by the conquerors was eventually 
abolished. But, alas, that the substitution itself should have 
been made by unrighteous and murderous hands ! 

The following is part of a letter written in 1536, by Las Casas, 
the historian and Dominican monk, to the emperor Charles V. 
The writer was himself of a kind heart, and unwearied in his en- 
deavors to convert the natives to the Christian faith ; and hence 
this harrowing recital may be accepted as an impartial account of 
the enormities practised by many of his countrymen and co- 
religionists upon the natives of Honduras and other places : " They 
murdered young children, beating out their brains against stones. 
The kings and princes of the country they either scorched to 



56 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [15 19 

death or threw them to the dogs to be torn to pieces. The- poor 
people they drove into their houses, and then set them on fire. 
Those that remained were condemned to the worst slavery imagi- 
nable, being used instead of mules and horses, forced to carry bur- 
dens far beyond their strength, so that thousands fell dead under 
their loads. They tortured the poor innocent natives in every 
■way they could invent, to force them to discover their gold. Par- 
ticularly Diego de Velasco spared none that ever fell into his hands ; 
so that in a month's time above ten thousand were hanged by him. 
He hanged thirteen chiefs, to whom he gave the names of the 
twelve apostles, etc. Some they suffered to starve to death, with 
their heads fastened between the cloven bark of wild vines ; some 
they buried alive, and, leaving only their heads above ground, 
bowled iron shot at them ; and forced some to eat one another, and 
infinite other abominable cruelties, too horrible to be recounted." 

The year that Cortez set sail for Mexico (15 19) Francisco 
de Garay, governor of Jamaica, sent out a squadron of four 
ships, commanded by Alvarez de Pineda, with the ostensible 
purpose of seeking a strait to the west of Florida. That 
peninsula was then thought to be an island; but finding upon 
examination that such was not the case, Pineda continued 
westward, critically examining the ports and everything 
worthy of remark, until he had passed down the Mexican 
coast beyond Panuco. The outlet of one great river — the 
Mississippi — was especially noticed ; it is named on the map 
of the pilots, as the Espiritu Santo. These discoveries con- 
nected those made by Ponce de Leon with those of Grijalva, 
and thus completed the circuit of the Gulf of Mexico. De 
Garay, like De Leon, received a royal edict to colonize the 
new-found region ; but as he coveted only that part which 
would give him access to the riches of Mexico, he became 
involved in a dispute with Cortez as to his right to the land 
about the Panuco river, and was killed in the attempt to 
establish his claim. 

Li 1513, Nunez de Balboa, a Si)aniard, crossed the narrow 
isthmus of Darien, and was rewarded by the discovery of the 



1525] PIZARRO. 57 

Pacific Ocean. A settlement was formed a few years later at 
Panama, and from there several attempts were made to ex- 
plore the regions of South America. Finally, in 1525, an 
expedition imder Francisco Pizarro discovered the rich and 
populous kingdom of Peru; though it was not until 1531, 
after obtaining a commission as governor from Charles V., 
that he set out to subdue the country. 

With a band of hardly two hundred men, Pizarro, fortified by 
royal warrant, invaded the territory of the Inca, Atahualpa. 
The latter, having been invited to an interview, was ordered 
instantly to embrace the Christian religion. Upon his refusing 
to acknowledge a creed he had never before heard of, he was 
made a prisoner, and, at the same time, not less than four 
thousand of the wonder-stricken and defenceless attendants 
were slain by the merciless invaders. Pizarro had been well 
instructed in the school of Hernando Cortez. As a ransom 
for his life and liberty, the Peruvian monarch caused a room 
to be filled with treasures of silver and gold. Their value 
was computed to exceed seven million dollars. The con- 
querors took the ransom, but upon the charge of his being 
an usurper and idolater, they also took the life of the hap- 
less Inca. They then quarrelled amongst themselves, and 
Pizarro himself was soon afterwards assassinated. The Peru- 
vians, under their new Inca, Huanca Capac, undertook to rid 
themselves of their savage oppressors ; but being unsuccessful, 
their kingdom, like that of Mexico, became also a helpless 
appendage of Spain. 

THE FLORIDA INTERIOR. 

The Florida of the early Spaniards included, besides the 

peninsula now known by that name, a vague extent of territory 

stretching westwardly an indefinite distance. We will briefly 

trace the several expeditions by which that country and its 

c* 



58 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1520 

including boundaries became gradually better defined. Of 
the exploration of its line of coast, an account has already- 
been given. 

The harsh treatment of the native islanders of San Domingo 
by the successors of Columbus, had greatly reduced the num- 
ber of laborers and slaves available for work in the mines and 
on the plantations. Hoav rapid the reduction had been, may 
be gathered from the statement that in fifteen years their num- 
bers had decreased from one million to sixty thousand, while 
in fifty years from the time of the Spanish occupation, there 
remained but two hundred Indians in Hispaniola. Drawn 
from the life-blood of these Caribs, was the golden product 
harvested by the Spaniards — a sum, per annum, of not less 
than two and a half million dollars. Enormous fortunes were 
soon acquired, resulting in a display of splendor at home (in 
Spain) from whence came numerous fresh tormentors, flocking 
to the wretched scene of misery and of relentless aggrandize- 
ment. When the yield of gold decreased, the cultivation of 
the sugar-cane was introduced. Alas ! there was no hope for 
the islanders : the gold might become exhausted, but the sap 
of the cane would spring al'resh, a perennial fount to them of 
bitterness and woe ! 

The poet Montgomery has mournfully portrayed in verse 
this sad work of inhumanity : 

O'erwhelmed at length with ignominious toil, 
Mingling their barren ashes with the soil, 
Down to the dust, the Carib people past 
Like autumn foliage withering in the blast : 
The whole race sunk beneath the oppressor's rod 
And left a blank amongst the works of God. 

The destruction of human life being thus early so fearful, it 
became urgently necessary that the destroyers should devise 
some means to obtain a fresh supply of victims. Hence, it 
was not long after the mainland had been discovered, before 



IS20] THE FLORIDA INTERIOR. 59 

efforts were made to obtain slaves from that quarter. The first 
attempt (1520) at this nefarious traffic, was that of Vasquez 
DE Ayllon, whose two ships, after leaving the Bahamas, 
sailed towards the coast northward of that first seen by Ponce 
de Leon. They called the land Chicora. In the neighbor- 
hood of St. Helena Sound, the shyness of the natives was 
overcome by the simulated friendship of the Spaniards. Un- 
suspectingly, they crowded the vessels, eager to barter for 
those novel trinkets so pleasing to the taste of the untutored 
savage ; and then, at a signal given, the sails were spread, and 
the ships with their freight of new-made slaves steered across 
to San Domingo. But it was a sad return ; for one of the 
vessels foundered at sea, and the other reached the island with 
its cargo of captives greatly reduced by the ravages of sick- 
ness. The subsequent attempt of Vasquez to obtain possession 
of his province — for which he had received the royal permit 
— resulted disastrously. The Indians, burning with the re- 
membrance of his former visit when their friends and relatives 
had been kidnapped, repulsed the invaders with loss. 

In 1525, Stephen Gomez, a native of Portugal, but em- 
ployed in the service of Spain, having obtained a commission 
to search for a northern passage to India, sailed along the 
New England coast about a year after it had been explored by 
Verrazzani. On an old Spanish map, "the Land of Gomez" 
is the name placed upon that territory. The navigator like- 
wise entered the bay of New York, and sailed along the Jersey 
coast nearly to the capes of the Delaware. His voyage had 
not been entirely barren of profit, as he shortly returned to 
Spain with a^ cargo of peltry and of captive Indians — some 
slight amends, in his view, for the failure to discover the 
mythical, passage. 

This Gomez had been a companion of the navigator Magel- 
lan, who, in 1520, having explored, the east coast of South 
America, entered the stormy straits between the mainland and 



6o HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1526 

Terra del Fiiego, and passing thence into the South Pacific, 
steered boldly toward India. Magellan died on the voyage, 
but his ship — ably guided by his successor — realized the vision 
of Columbus that the world could be circumnavigated, as the 
vessel passed around the Cape of Good Hope, and thence by 
the track of Vasco de Gama to Spain again. 

The expedition of Paimphilo de Narvaez in 1526, started 
out, not to obtain slaves from the coast, but to secure the 
fancied treasures of the interior. To the excited imaginations 
of the Spaniards, Florida, like Mexico, contained its mines 
of inexhaustible Avealth ; and thus it happened while Pizarro 
in tropical Peru was worshipping naught but Mammon though 
proclaiming a crucified Christ, Narvaez and his three hundred 
men, landing on the coast of Florida, and advancing into its 
forests of pine and palmetto, threatened the Indians with 
destruction unless they accepted the Pope and the Emperor as 
their masters by divine right. But the gold which he chiefly 
came to seek, was not to be found. Instead of it came 
exceeding fatigue and the gnawing pangs of hunger, with 
sickness and death to many. Their horses also giving out, 
the famished soldiers fed upon their flesh. The native town 
of Appalachee, of which they had heard, and where they had 
hoped to obtain rich booty, they found to be but a little 
village of wretched wigwams. 

Through a land of marsh, and of endless forests, and of 
salt bayous reaching inland from the sea, they came at last to 
the harbor of St. Mark. Here they had expected succor, but 
no friendly sail was seen to relieve their desponding sight. 
Upon the flesh of their horses, and maize plundered from the 
natives, they sustained life, while constructing boats to carry 
them away from that unhappy land. Tlieir stirrups and spurs, 
now useless, and other implements of iron, were beaten into 
spikes and saws and axes ; the fibre of palmetto answered for 
oakum to caulk the boats' seams, and the pitch from pine- 



1539] THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA. 6 1 

trees to cover the same. Twisted horse-hair and the palmetto 
served them for rigging; of their shirts were made sails; 
while, as a substitute for water-casks, they used the dressed 
skins of the horses. 

Having constructed five boats, each upwards of thirty feet 
in length, they departed from St. Mark's and followed the 
coast toward Mexico. But it was not long before they were 
overtaken by a storm, which either wrecked the boats or drove 
them on shore. Narvaez was no more heard of. There re- 
mained but four survivors, one of whom named Cabeza de 
Vaca, a man of great endurance and self-possession, acted as 
leader. The narrative which he wrote of their wanderings is 
a remarkable one, and tells how they lived several years with 
the tribes of the Mississippi, then made their escape, and after 
many vicissitudes, journeying westward by the waters of the 
Arkansas and Red rivers they came to New Mexico and 
Sonora, and thence by the Gulf of California to the city of 
Mexico. 

It was soon after their arrival in Mexico or New Spain, that 
a notable expedition was sent out, in 1539, by Mendoza, then 
viceroy, to search for the "Seven Cities of Cibola," the ru- 
mors of whose wonderful terraced houses and palaces, and of 
lavish riches exceeding those of Mexico, had recently reached 
the itching ears of the Spaniards. Three hundred and fifty 
men of the proudest families of Spain, followed the banner 
of the youthful commander, Francisco de Coronado. As an 
aid to the land force, Pedro de Alarcon, with several vessels, 
was sent up the coast and into the Gulf of California. Alarcon 
discovered the river Colorado, and though it was with great 
difficulty that his vessels could make headway against the 
current of that rapid stream, he really ascended it a distance 
of at least two hundred and fifty miles. Failing to hear 
anything of the movements of the land force, he returned 
southward to New Spain. 

6 



62 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1539 

Meanwhile, Coronado had advanced to the Gila river, and 
thence by rapid marches east and northward through a desert 
country, to the elevated region of the Sierra Madre. If the 
reader will examine his map, he will see where the road from 
the city of Santa Fe leaves the Rio Grande at Albuquerque, 
and crosses the prolongation of the Madre Mountains by the 
Zuni Pass. Near the foot of the western declivity of the 
pass, but built above a precipitous rock, is the village of Zuni. 
Here Coronado and his cavaliers, with keen disappointment, 
beheld one of the famous cities of Cibola ! Maddened with 
hunger and vexation, the Spaniards mounted the rock with a 
resistless impetuosity, overcame its defenders, and plundered 
the village — but neither gold nor treasures of any kind did it 
yield. 

A company was sent out from here to search for the other 
cities, but they soon returned with the report that these latter 
presented no more promising objects of rapacity than did the 
place already taken — that they were inhabited only by poor 
"village Indians" (the Moquis) who cultivated maize, and 
offered to them presents of their humble products. A second 
detachment, after an irregular march of twenty days across an 
arid waste, came to an upland plain in which they found the 
magnificent, deep-cut canons of the upper Colorado. With 
amazement they gazed down those precipitous cliffs, and 
beheld where the river, that raced along on its rocky bed in 
the abyss far below, appeared to the eyes no greater in size 
than a babbling rivulet. 

Before this party had returned, a third was sent out by 
Coronado, which crossed the pass of Zuni, and came to the 
valley of the Rio Grande. They had heard of a province 
called Cicuye, where were cattle having soft hair that curled 
like wool. They found the province, five days farther to the 
eastward on the river Pecos, but there was nothing to repay 
their toil except the report that the real land of the buffalo, 



1539] FERDINAND DE SOTO. 63 

where also gold and silver were plentiful indeed, was to be 
found still farther toward the sun-rising. Coronado, himself, 
determined to seek this land of promised plenty. In nine 
days they reached the haunt of the bison : the boundless 
plains and the grazing herds, the countless prairie-dogs and 
burrowing owls, the hunting tribes of nomad Indians dwelling 
in tents and moving hither and thither where the buffalo led 
them. Many days they spent in the fruitless search for a rich 
kingdom like Mexico or Peru. At last, but reluctantly, they 
gave up the quest, and, upon the banks of a large river flowing 
towards the east — probably the Arkansas — a cross was raised 
which bore the inscription : "Thus far came Francisco Vasquez 
de Coronado, general of an expedition." 

DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

While Coronado, west of the Mississippi, was solving the 
unsatisfactory problem of the locality and opulence of the 
Seven Cities of Cibola, one who had been a companion of 
Pizarro in Peru and a sharer of his plunder, was exploring the 
territory east of that great, and as yet unknown, river. It 
was not the love of geographical discovery, but the mercenary 
lust for gold — fired in part by the delusive narrative of Cabeza 
de Vaca — which prompted Ferdinand de Soto to solicit from 
the king of Spain the privilege of undertaking the conquest 
of the extensive territory then known as Florida. The king 
granted his request, as well as the government of the island 
of Cuba. 

The plan of De Soto was received with great enthusiasm, 
and noblemen and gentlemen of means contended for the 
privilege of joining his standard. With six hundred selected 
soldiers, De Soto sailed from Spain for Cuba, received some 
reinforcements at that island, and shortly landed them at the 
bay of Espiritu Santo (now Tampa Bay), on the west side of 



64 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1539 

the Florida peninsula. As they disembarked and arranged 
themselves in order of march, they presented a "gallant 
array" of men-at-arms — their burnished accoutrements and 
weapons glancing in the sun— pennons flying and trumpets 
sounding — the impatient steeds, prancing and eager for the 
onward march. There was a show of religion too, for the 
commander declared that the enterprise was undertaken for 
the glory of God, and appeared to be under his superintending 
care. Though there were monks and priests with this pano- 
plied company, to attend to the souls of the ignorant Indians, 
there were also fetters to bind their bodies, and cruel blood- 
hounds, as auxiliaries in the work. 

It was in the summer of 1539 that the adventurers began 
their march. But the glory of their first appearance was soon 
marred ; and as week by week they journeyed on through the 
interminable forests and the oozy, tangled swamps, often misled 
by guides, and never reaching the goal of their hopes, the 
company grew dispirited and would fain have returned. But 
the iron will of their leader changed not ; he kept on, relent- 
less, while life lasted. In this extremity the captive Indians 
suffered still worse than the invaders : with iron collars around 
their necks, or led in chains, they were condemned to grind 
the maize, and upon fhdr shoulders the baggage Avas laden. 
The misery the Spaniards themselves endured, they seem to 
have re-inflicted tenfold. 

They traversed a great part of Georgia and Alabama — the 
upper sections as well as those near the gulf — and upon ar- 
riving at Ochus (now Pensacola) received some much-needed 
supplies from Cuba. Farther west, about the bay of Mobile, the 
Indians were numerous and hostile, and the country moreover 
was poor; so De Soto again advanced into the north, still near- 
ing the Mississippi. In this region they passed the winter, and 
when spring opened and they were ready to resume their 
march, a demand was made upon the Chickasaw Indians that 



1 541] DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 65 

two hundred men of that tribe should be designated as burden- 
bearers for the whites. This the natives objected to, and re- 
sented the invitation by burning at night the lodges of the 
Spaniards. Several of the latter lost their lives, a number of 
the horses were consumed, and much of the clothing and 
weapons were also lost. Not long after this disaster, but in 
the third year of their eventful wandering, they reached the 
banks of the Mississippi. 

It has been narrated on a preceding page that the expedition 
sent out in 1519 by De Garay, and commanded by Pineda, had 
specially noticed the outlet of the Mississippi, which they marked 
on their map as the Espiritu Santo. It is strange to note that the 
long period of one hundred and thirty-two years elapsed from the 
time that De Soto now beheld it, until the river was re-discovered 
by a French Jesuit, Marquette. 

To cross the broad expanse of waters, deep, rapid, and 
bearing on its turbid current a constant succession of trees and 
drift-wood, was a formidable undertaking for the Spaniards, 
so that a month elapsed before they had constructed barges 
staunch enough to carry them safely to the western shore. 
This accomplished, the company continued their march until 
they approached the prairies; but perceiving that they would 
not be repaid for any farther toil and research in that direc- 
tion, they changed their course to the south-eastward, following 
the line of the Washita and Red rivers until they again arrived 
at the Mississippi. 

They had now entered a sickly and almost impassable re- 
gion, cut up into numberless bayous, and covered with dense 
woods and canebrake. Their progress became exceedingly 
slow and laborious, the men were thoroughly disheartened, 
and at last De Soto himself, borne down by dejection, and 
suffering from a malignant fever, died miserably, and was 
buried beneath the swift-rolling tide of the Mississippi. 

The adventurers now determined on returning to New 
6* 



66 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1541 

Spain by any way that might open, and, despairing of the 
river route, turned their steps westward, until they came 
again to the prairies. But they found the march overland 
would also be impracticable ; whereupon, forming the resolu- 
tion to build themselves boats, they once more came back to 
the river, and set to work at what seemed the last resource. 
Seven barges, with sails, were constructed and launched, 
and, embarking therein they descended the river, and in 
seventeen days reached the Gulf of Mexico ; when, spreading 
the sails of their frail vessels, they at last arrived in safety at 
the Spanish settlement on the river Panuco. 

We may better understand the perverted religious spirit which 
was manifested by De Soto and his warriors by perusing an address 
sent by Pedro de Santander to King Philip II. of Spain, in 
1557, in which he reminds the king that the latter should act the 
good shepherd, to tend and lead out the sheep that " may have 
been snatched away by the dragon, the Demon. These pastures," 
Santander astutely observes, "are the New World wherein is com- 
prised Florida, now in possession of the Demon, and here he 
makes himself adored and revered. This is the Land of Promise, 
possessed by idolaters, the Amorite, Amalekite, Moabite and 
Canaanite. This is the land promised by the Eternal Father to 
the Faithful, since we are commanded by God in the holy Scrip- 
tures to take it from them, being idolaters, and, by reason of their 
idolatry and sin, to put them all to the knife, leaving no living 
thing save maidens and children, their cities robbed and sacked, 
their walls and houses levelled to the earth." To carry out this 
plan, Santander proposed to occupy Florida at various points with 
colonists — such as Tallahassee and Tampa Bay — and to name the 
cities Philippina, Cassarea, etc. 

An attempt by Cancello, a Dominican monk, and others of that 
fraternity (1547), to convert the natives to the Romish faith, resulted 
disastrously : weapons of steel had already closed the way, which 
otherwise the tokens of love might have readily opened. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE HUGUENOTS— THEIR MISTAKES AND MISFOR- 
TUNES. 

1555—1566. 



COLIGNY, THE HUGUENOT CHIEF. VILLE-GAGNON. 

In the summer of 1555 — the same year that Charles the 
Fifth gave to his son Philip the Second the provinces of the 
Netherlands — there sailed from Havre, in France, two vessels, 
which were commanded by a certain Nicholas de Ville- 
GAGNON. The commission under which he sailed was of a 
peculiar nature ; and the better to understand the man and 
his errand, it will be well to glance at the then condition of 
France, which, with its venal and voluptuous court, and 
swayed by factions of nobles, bishops and cardinals, was in a 
sad state of political and religious ferment. 

Francis the First, the unsuccessful antagonist of Charles 
the Fifth, had, at his death, been succeeded on the throne of 
France by his son Henry II. The sceptre of power, however, 
really rested with Catharine de Medicis, the consort of Henry, 
an ambitious, intriguing and unprincipled woman ; while the 
family of Guise, powerful and unscrupulous, were the promi- 
nent leaders of the Papists. 

The principles of the Reformation were rapidly permeating 
the country, and notwithstanding that men and women were 
tortured, and burnt at the stake, the so-called "heretical 
doctrines" made headway, and the party of Rome became 
thoroughly alarmed. Geneva, the home of Calvin, became a 

67 



68 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1555 

city of refuge for many of those who had embraced the re- 
formed faith ; and these were known by the name of Hugue- 
nots. Their principles were those of Calvin — stern, and to a 
certain extent, intolerant; and, when the storm burst, it 
became manifest that, unlike the primitive Christians who 
patiently suffered the fires and the rack of persecution, they 
too, like the Romanists, could be carnally aggressive. Their 
acknowledged leader was Caspar de Coligny, Admiral of 
France : a man of calm and resolute disposition, honest in 
purpose, firm in his religious convictions, and, by education, 
prepared to maintain the same at the point of the sword. 

The Huguenots claimed such supporters as the prince of Conde 
the dukes of Montmorency and Navarre ; yet with these latter, the 
attainment of their selfish interests probably weighed as much as 
did their attachment to the reformed faith. The friendship of 
nobles, who are apt to rely on their own power and influence, rather 
than on the Almighty arm, has ever proved a weakness to the ad- 
vancement of Christian Truth. "It is better," says the Psalmist, 
" to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." 

While Coligny was in a state of perplexity, concerned for 
the safety and well-being of his co-religionists, there came to 
him Nicholas de Ville-gagnon, already mentioned. He was 
one who would be styled a " versatile genius :" an able scholar 
and linguist, apt at controversy with tongue and pen, by pro- 
fession a seaman and soldier, vice-admiral of Brittany and a 
commander of the knights of Malta. Restless in spirit, as in 
body, unstable as well as ambitious, he was now become a 
contender for the Protestant faith. At his interview with 
Coligny, he broached the project of establishing a tropical 
empire in the New World, to be an asylum for the persecuted, 
free from mischievous plots of mohks and cardinals, and es- 
pecially of that Lorraine, of the house of Guise, who then 
wore the red cassock and hat. The admiral gave a ready ear 
to the scheme of Ville-gagnon, though the latter had already 



1555] COLIGNY, THE HUGUENOT CHIEF. 69 

plied King Henry with very different arguments, chief of 
which was the desirability of appropriating some of the South 
American possessions of the too-grasping Spaniards and 
Portuguese. 

The king and his admiral, though biassed by different 
motives, had both assented to the undertaking. Although 
most of the emigrants were Huguenots, there was unfortu- 
nately a counter-element composed of piratical sailors from 
Breton and Normandy, and of turbulent young nobles, idle 
and indigent. Upon arriving in the harbor of Rio Janeiro 
(1555) the men were landed upon an island, where huts and 
earthworks were constructed. The fort they called Colighy ; 
the continent received the name of Antarctic France. That 
the ill-assorted colonists did not lead a pleasant life of con- 
cord, may be readily inferred. Their commander, with a 
stern determination to reduce the refractory to implicit obe- 
dience and discipline, resorted to the whip and pillory, and 
other severe measures. The men conspired to poison or 
murder him, but the plot being revealed, their purposes were 
foiled. 

In the meantime the two vessels had returned to France, 
carrying despatches from Ville-gagnon of so inviting a nature, 
that in the following year a second company, chiefly of Hu- 
guenots, embarked for the Brazilian settlement. After the 
expedition had arrived at its destination, all for a time went 
well. The men busied themselves about the construction of 
the fort, and there were daily sermons and prayers — Ville- 
gagnon being always present, kneeling on a velvet cushion 
brought after him by a page. But it was not long before his 
aptitude for polemics drew him into a sharp controversy upon 
points of faith, with the newly-arrived ministers; and this 
resulted in filling the fort with wranglings and feuds. The 
conduct of Ville-gagnon soon became exceedingly intolerant ; 
he professed to have been deceived in Calvin, whom he now 



70 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1562 

pronounced "a frightful heretic;" three zealous adherents 
of the Calvinist doctrines he caused to be dragged to the edge 
of a rock, and cast into the sea ; while the ministers were 
glad to escape to a vessel, which, loading with Brazil wood, 
was about to sail for France. 

Pitiful was the experience which awaited them. The vessel 
being overtaken by storms was delayed in its passage, the 
water in the casks failed and their provisions gave out, and, 
tossed upon a tempestuous sea, they seemed doomed to a 
miserable death. "In their famine they chewed the Brazil 
wood with which the vessel was laden, devoured every scrap 
of leather, singed and ate the horn of lanterns, hunted rats 
through the hold and sold them to each other at enormous 
prices." At length when overcome with sickness, and scarcely 
able to move a limb, to their joy they descried the coast of 
Brittany. Ville-gagnon, himself, soon returned to France, 
leaving the wretched colony to its fate. The fort was captured 
by the Portuguese, and the garrison either slain or dispersed 
among the Indians on the mainland. 

More than half a century previous to the coming of the Hugue- 
nots, the mariners of Portugal had discovered and claimed this 
country for their king ; and although it is true that this, their claim, 
was grounded on no substantial foundation of purchase from the 
native Brazilians, yet Coligny and his coadjutors erred when they 
established a settlement — and a menacing one as well — without any 
consultation as to the wishes of the Portuguese. The shadowy 
"right of discovery" was at least partially recognized among mari- 
time nations ; so that, in legal parlance, the Huguenots should have 
first "extinguished the prior lien" (if the Portuguese were willing 
to sell), and then have treated with the aboriginal inhabitants for a 
clear title to the land. 

RIBAULT AND LAUDONNIERE. 

More fortunate was Coligny in his second choice of a com- 
mander, when, in 1562, he directed Jean Ribault, of Dieppe, 



1562] RIBAVLT. 71 

to sail with two vessels to America ; there to use all diligence 
in the search for a wilderness-home for the Huguenots. But 
it must be confessed that Ribault's company of soldiers and 
sailors and a few young nobles, was but little better consti- 
tuted to secure stability, than was that of Ville-gagnon. He 
sailed for the northern continent of America, which was 
reached below the thirtieth parallel of latitude, the coast of 
Florida. The following day they landed at the mouth of a 
large river — the St. John's — but called by them the River of 
May, for it was on May-day that they discovered it. 

They had naught to fear from the Indians ; the squaws and 
children approaching, strewed the earth with laurel boughs, 
and seated themselves amongst the strangers, whom they sup- 
posed, when they saw them kneeling on the shore, to be chil- 
dren of the sun. Tiie old chronicle of the voyage dwells 
with rapturous language upon the delightful aspect of nature — ■ 
the verdurous meadows and leafy woods — the aromatic odors 
of pine and magnolia — the grazing deer — the strange birds 
and water-fowl — while it quaintly adds, that "to be short, it 
is a thing unspeakable to consider the thinges that bee seen 
there, and shall be found more and more in this incomperable 
lande." Then they planted a stone pillar, graven with the 
lily-flower of France, and, embarking, continued northward, 
naming the streams which they passed, the Seine, the Loire, 
the Charente, etc., from the rivers of their own land. 

It was late in the month when they came to that territory 
called Chicora by the Spaniard, De Ayllon, when, forty years 
before, he sailed among its inlets in search of slaves for the 
mines of San Domingo. Seeing a fine, commodious haven, 
they named it Port Royal. Passing Hilton Head at its en- 
trance, they sailed into the Broad river. All being well 
pleased with the aspect of tlie country, Ribault decided to 
erect a fort, leave part of the company in charge, and to go 
back to France for reinforcements. Charles-Fort was forth- 



72 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1562 

with built, supplied with ammunition and stores, and thirty 
men chosen to remain. 

The injunction of Ribault that they should use all gentle- 
ness and kindness towards the children of the forest was for 
awhile pretty well observed. They had everything their own 
way, visiting in turn the villages of the neighboring chiefs, 
feasting on their hominy, beans and game, and not refusing 
the gifts with which their dusky entertainers loaded them. 
When, near the time of the Indian harvest, their supplies 
became exhausted, the generous natives still brought them food 
as long as their own lasted. 

But presently discord arose in the camp. The colonists, 
maddened by the domineering behavior of the commander 
in charge, who had hung one of their number and banished 
another to a lonely island, finally attacked the chief and mur- 
dered him. The bloody deed done, and themselves threat- 
ened with famine; the land of their choice no longer the 
beautiful place it had seemed when they came; weary of the 
life they led, and dreaming day by day of home, they at last 
determined to build a vessel and make the attempt to return 
to France. 

What a strange sight, to behold these indolent and quarrel- 
some beings, so suddenly changed to active artisans — erecting 
a forge, making tools, hewing down trees, chipping and ham- 
mering at beams and blocks, caulking the seams, and covering 
them with the smoking pitch ! It is said of them, that, " had 
they put forth, to maintain themselves at Port Royal, the 
energy and resource which they exerted to escape from it, 
they might have laid the corner-stone of a solid colony." 
Embarking in their frail craft, and spreading the patch-work 
sails, they made good progress for several days ; then there 
was a long calm, and the food and water failed, their shoes 
and leather jerkins were devoured, and in their dire need, one 
of their own number was sacrificed for food. This dreadful 



1564] laudonniAre. 73 

repast sustained them, until, when near the French coast, they 
were succored by the crew of an English barque. 

In France there was at this time the hollow form of a truce 
between the disputing factions, and Coligny being in favor at 
the court, was enabled to send out another American expedi- 
tion, in the summer of 1564. This was placed under the 
command of Rene de Laudonniere, a good marine officer, 
and of fair reputation otherwise, who had taken part in 
Ribault's unfortunate undertaking. But the men who accom- 
panied him were of the same sort as those who had gone 
before ; there were soldiers and seekers of fortune, some 
artisans and tradesmen, but the hardy yeomen, a necessary 
element of colonial prosperity, were yet wanting. 

Avoiding the haven of Port Royal, of disastrous memory, 
they directed their course to the St. John's, or River of May ; 
and on the south bank of that stream, five miles above its 
mouth, they built Fort Caroline — so called in honor of 
Charles IX., then king of France. The fort, which was close 
to an elevation, now known as St. John's Bluff, was constructed 
in the shape of a triangle, with bastions at the three corners, 
a parade ground in the centre, the buildings for lodging and 
storage around its inner sides. The river flowed in front, and 
there were protecting ditches on the other two sides. But 
why the need of a fort, seeing that the Indians were friendly, 
and that they, the Huguenots, professed to seek an asylum 
irova persecution ? The reason was, because they occupied the 
Florida claimed by Spain ; and because their desires were far 
more toward the gold mines of the interior, which they might 
have to fight for, than they were toward that ** better land" 
where persecution or other ills are never known. 

The neighboring Indians, who were worshippers of the 

sun, and lived in huts thatched with palmetto, though friendly 

to the whites were at enmity with two tribes on the south and 

west. Laudonniere, in an evil hour, promised to aid them 

D 7 



74 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1564 

against their enemies up the river. But in the meantime, an 
officer, whom he had sent with a boat's crew to the chief of 
the upper tribe, twice assisted him in a raid against his 
enemies, hoping thereby to gain the rumored gold of the 
Appalachee Mountains. Thus it happened that the adven- 
turers at Fort Caroline incurred the distrust and the hate of 
their neighbors, so that when, shortly afterwards, they were 
greatly in want of provisions, the natives, refusing to venture 
within the fort, required the whites to come out to them in 
boats on the river. 

Meanwhile, within the fort, discontent and jealousies were 
rife. There was one, Roquette, who asserted that he knew 
of mines of gold and silver, many leagues up the St. John's, 
and which, he covertly asserted, would yield to every one of 
them an immense fortune, if they could but put Laudonniere 
out of the way. Their wicked schemes to compass his death 
proving unsuccessful, they took advantage of a time when he 
was suffering from illness to imprison him. But the malcon- 
tents had now concocted a more likely method of making 
themselves rich, than that of exploring the Everglades for the 
mines of Roquette : in other words, they proposed to become 
pirates. 

Accordingly, having armed and supplied two small vessels 
with cannon, munitions and stores, the mutineers set sail 
toward the islands of the Spanish main. They secured a 
number of prizes and took much booty, but, while rejoicing 
in their high career, were surprised by several armed vessels, 
and were glad to make their escape, empty-handed, from the 
clutches of the incensed Spaniards. Upon their return to 
Fort Caroline, Laudonniere ordered a court-martial ; all were 
found guilty, though the ring-leaders only were sentenced to 
be shot. 

The colonists at this time were threatened with starvation. 
Gold and conquest having been their prime objects, not an 



1564] MENENDEZ. 75 

acre of the soil had been tilled; while, from the Indians, who 
were hostile, as well as anxious for them to depart, but little 
succor could be expected. Suffering from want, and despairing 
of the realization of their dreams, they were about to depart, 
when relief appeared from a very unexpected quarter. It was 
the arrival of the ships of Sir John Hawkins. The "father 
of the English slave-trade" had just sold at a great profit, to 
the Spaniards of San Domingo, a cargo of negroes kidnapped 
in Guinea ; and now had merely visited the Huguenot settle- 
ment, preparatory to his return to England. Scarcely had 
the white sails of his carrion-fleet disappeared from the offing, 
when Ribault's long-expected squadron entered the River 
of May, bringing ample stores of provisions, besides several 
hundred recruits for the colony. But Ribault, who was com- 
missioned to take the chief command, was unaware of the 
black cloud of ruin that had gathered, and was even then 
about to burst upon the Huguenots. 

Hawkins himself relates, of one of his slave-capturing expedi- 
tions, that he set fire to the palm-thatched huts of a negro town, 
and, out of eight thousand inhabitants, he succeeded in securing 
but two hundred and fifty. England's Protestant queen, to her 
great dishonor, protected, as well as shared in the profits of, this 
traffic — in the sugar, spices, pearls, etc., which were realized in 
exchange for the bodies of men. 



RUIN AND REVENGE— MENENDEZ AND DE GOURGUES. 

To Menendez de Aviles, a distinguished officer of the 
Spanish marine, Philip II. had granted the privilege of the 
conquest and settlement of Florida, and the conversion of its 
natives. All of this Menendez was empowered to do at his 
own expense, and he was also to take five hundred men, and 
supply them with as many slaves, besides horses and others 
domestic animals. 



76 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1565 

While the preparations were going on, news reached Spain 
of the sailing of the squadron of Ribault, and so great a zeal 
to overtake and overwhelm the heretics did this intelligence 
excite, that the number of men comprising the expedition was 
shortly increased to two thousand six hundred, besides twenty 
Franciscans and Jesuit priests. Leaving the greater part of 
liis fleet to follow, Menendez sailed for Florida with eleven 
ships. Upon reaching the mouth of the St. John's, he at- 
tacked the French vessels, but they escaped to sea. Sailing 
down the coast, he came to an inlet, which he called St. 
Augustine. Here a landing was effected, and without delay 
the negroes were set to work at building houses and intrench- 
ments. It was a memorable event in our country's history, 
for it was then, in the summer of 1565, that St. Augustine, 
the oldest town in the United States, was founded, and it was 
then also that African slave-labor was introduced upon our soil. 

The Spaniards were engaged upon this work, when the 
squadron of Ribault suddenly reappeared, coming towards the 
harbor. A storm, however, arose, and the vessels were obliged 
to leave without making an attack. Menendez then proposed 
to his men to attack the weakened garrison at Fort Caroline, 
which was but thirty miles distant. All in the storm, and 
through a wild country of swampy forests and tangled under- 
brush and swollen streams, they went on their bloody errand. 
Arriving at the fort, it was easily carried by assault, and all 
of the garrison, except a few who escaped to the swamp, were 
mercilessly slain. Even those who returned and surrendered 
themselves, shared the same fate as the rest. Upon a tree, 
there was set up the inscription, " I do this not as to French- 
men, but as to Lutherans." Then Menendez, having ascer- 
tained that Ribault's vessels, unable to weather the storm, had 
been cast ashore below St. Augustine, marched thither at once. 
The castaways, numbering several hundreds, being persuaded 
to put themselves in his power, he ordered their hands tied 



1567] DE GOURGUES. 77 

behind their backs, and all of them (who claimed to be 
Huguenots) were shot. 

" I had their hands tied behind their backs," writes the cruel 
Menendez, "and themselves put to the sword. It appeared to me, 
that, by thus chastising them, God, our Lord, and your Majesty 
were served ; whereby in future this evil sect will leave us more 
free to plant the Gospel in these parts." 

A few days afterward, he accepted the surrender of a remnant 
of the French who were overtaken down the coast near Cape Ca- 
naveral. Philip the Second graciously writes : "Say to Menendez 
that, as to those he has killed, he has done well ; and as to those he 
has saved, they shall be sent to the galleys." 

The party of Catharine de Medicis and of her pliant son 
Charles IX. was too much tied to Romish interests to complain 
of this wretched massacre on the part of the Spaniards. But 
there w^as a certain Gascon, named Dominic de Gourgues, 
who could not rest easy under the dishonor which he believed 
his country had suffered; and hence formed the determination 
to take the reprisal into his own hands. It does not appear 
certain that he was a Huguenot, while it is sufficiently evident 
that motives of piety did not at all regulate his career. He 
hated the Spaniards intensely, and was probably only too glad 
of an opportunity to exhibit the full extent of his animosity. 

With three small vessels De Gourgues sailed (1567) on his 
evil mission. His real destination was not at first divulged to 
his followers, his commission simply permitting him to make 
war on the negroes of Benin, in Africa, and to kidnap them 
as slaves. From the Benin coast he sailed to Florida, and 
landed, unperceived by the Spaniards, above the mouth of the 
St. John's. The natives, who had been treated by the Span- 
iards even more harshly than before by the French, were easily 
induced to unite their forces with those of De Gourgues, for 
the attack on Fort Caroline. The latter, as well as two small 
forts at the river's mouth were all quickly surprised and cap- 

7* 



•jS HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1567 

tured; and, with the same relentless barbarity that Menendez 
had slain the French, did they in turn butcher the Spaniards. 
A few who had been purposely taken prisoners were hung upon 
a tree, and over them was placed the inscription, burned with 
a hot iron upon a board of pine : " Not as to Spaniards, but 
as to Traitors, Robbers and Murderers." 



CHAPTER VII. 

ENGLISH VOYAGES AND FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 

1576— 1605. 



MARTIN FROBISHER: SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, 

It has been mentioned in chapter iv. that Sebastian Cabot, 
had, subsequent to his first great discoveries, been honorably 
employed in the maritime service of Spain. It is true that 
his expectation as to the discovery of a north-west passage 
to India had not been realized ; while in the meantime, the 
south-east route by the Cape of Good Hope, and that of the 
south-west around South America, had been marked out by the 
expeditions of Vasco de Gama and of Magellan. 

But when, in 1547, the English council advanced the sum 
of one hundred pounds, for Cabot, " a pilot, to come out of 
Spain, to serve and inhabit in England," the veteran navigator 
accepted the invitation, and was soon engaged in the work of 
directing attempts to reach India by the Norway coast and 
the North-east. These efforts, though not successful as to 
their announced object, yet were instrumental in developing 
a trade with Russia, a country which was only then emerging 
into political prominence. The harbor of Archangel, on the 
White Sea, was reached by the expedition of Sir Hugh Wil- 
loughby, which was fitted out by Cabot, and a profitable 
commerce presently established. The returns were not at 
once so great as were those of Spain and Portugal from their 
new possessions, but they were not only more sure, but were 

79 



8o HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1576 

exempt from the disastrous consequences of a too rapid in- 
crease of wealth. It would have been well for the English 
had they always followed the line of legitimate trade, and not 
looked with envious eyes on the gold speculations of their 
neighbors. 

The passage by the north of America, however, was not yet 
despaired of. To test its practicability, an intelligent English 
navigator, Martin Frobisher, not possessing means of his 
own, persuaded the Earl of Warwick and other persons of 
wealth, to furnish him with the requisite outfit. His three 
little vessels — two barks and a pinnace — aggregated a capacity 
of but fifty-five tons. One of these was lost in a storm, a 
second returned to port, but the third, in which was the com- 
mander, continued on its way. Frobisher entered a strait 
between two large islands — the same now known by his name, 
connecting the Greenland Sea with the channels north of 
Hudson's Bay. Taking it for granted that it opened out 
into the great Pacific Ocean, he merely gathered up some 
earth and stones as tokens of his discovery, and returned to 
England to apprise Queen Elizabeth and his countrymen, of 
the acquisition of a new dominion. This was in the year 

1576. 

A critical examination of the rubbish brought back by 
Frobisher resulted in finding a stone which was declared to 
contain gold. The cupidity of London capitalists straight- 
way became excited, and a fleet was sent out in the following 
year for the precious ore of the northern seas. The eyes of 
the mariners were wide open for indications of treasure. At 
a certain place, spiders abounded ; whereupon it was confi- 
dently affirmed by the wiseacres that " spiders were true signs 
of great store of gold." The ships having been freighted 
with the earth, returned to England with the profitless cargo. 
But this unsuccessful venture did not prevent a repetition of the 
same, equally foolish, and on a still larger scale. The fine 



1583] S/J? HUMPHREY GILBERT. 8 1 

fleet of fifteen sail, on which had embarked quite a number of 
the English gentry, entered the strait afterward known as 
Hudson's, but encountering many icebergs and various other 
perils, and running into new and devious channels, the zeal 
of the gold-seekers began to moderate. Loading their vessels 
with black ore and other minerals, to conceal their failure, 
they sailed homeward, their avarice greatly unsatisfied. 

That worthy chronicler, Richard Hakluyt, states, that in 
1578 — which was the year of Frobisher's last voyage — there 
were at Newfoundland a hundred and fifty French fishing- 
vessels, besides two hundred belonging to the Spanish, En- 
glish, and Portuguese ; also over twenty Biscayan whalers. It 
was the belief of Humphrey Gilbert, a step-brother of Sir 
Walter Raleigh, that these fisheries, which realized the sure 
riches of the sea, were to be accounted more valuable, and 
more worthy to be fostered, then was the uncertain hunt after 
the precious minerals of the earth. Actuated by the expecta- 
tion of forming a permanent colony on the north-east Ameri- 
can coast, Gilbert obtained from the queen a very liberal 
patent. With the aid of Raleigh, a small fleet was equipped 
(i579)> ^ut unfortunately a storm was encountered, one ship 
was lost and others were disabled, and as a consequence the 
expedition was abandoned. 

As the patent from the queen was to continue in force but 
six years, Gilbert again, generously aided by Raleigh, was 
provided in 1583 (a year before the limitation of his charter) 
with a second fleet. Upon arriving at Newfoundland the 
country was taken possession of for the queen of England, in 
the presence of the fishermen of various nations, and lands 
were granted to them upon condition of paying a quit-rent. 
But disaster attended the undertaking. The largest ship of 
Gilbert's little fleet had been lost on the outward voyage. 
The next in size, which they now loaded with what was 
thought to be silver ore, struck on a rock and was wrecked — 



S2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [15S3 

nearly a hundred of the men going down with the supposed 
treasure. Finally, Gilbert with but two vessels, sailed for 
home, but on a night when a great storm prevailed, the little 
craft (it was the Squirrel, of ten tons only) in which was the 
commander, foundered, and vessel and crew were never seen 
again. 

Shortly before the time of Gilbert's last attempt at colonization, 
the Spaniards established their second settlement within what are 
now the United States. Augustin Ruiz, a Franciscan friar, with 
several companions, had, in 15S0, explored the Rio Grande from 
its middle course to the upper valley where Coronado had been, 
forty years before. And in the next year, Antonio de Espejio, with 
a body of soldiers and Indians, continuing the interior explorations 
north of the Gila, gave to the country the name of New Mexico, 
and Santa Fe was built. 



SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 

That species of modern land-and-water plundering which 
is called buccaneering, was largely promoted by the daring 
exploits of Sir Francis Drake. For notoriety as a piratical 
commander, the name of Drake is, or ought to be, connected 
with early English freebooting, as is that of Hawkins with 
the beginning of the English slave trade. [Men of the sea- 
port towns who might have become peaceful fishermen among 
the cod-banks of Newfoundland, hearing of the successful 
pillaging by Drake and Hawkins, easily allowed the desire for 
sudden wealth to overcome their honest scruples. They be- 
held likewise how titles of honor were conferred on names 
which reeked with deeds the most disgraceful. Hence, what 
wonder that weak consciences gave way, and that men once 
of good repute, found themselves embarked upon careers 
which might indeed bring gold to their hands, but must ruin 
their souls for eternity. 

This history, however, will have little to do with the phin- 



1579] ^^^ FHAA'CIS DRAKE. S3 

dering exploits of the irascible Sir Francis. It was about the 
time of Humphrey Gilbert's first expedition (1579), that 
Drake, having left England on a voyage in pursuit of fortune, 
sailed around to the Spanish possessions on the Pacific, and, 
though Philip the Second and Elizabeth were not then at war, 
vigorously attacked the South American sea-ports and loaded 
his ship with great spoils. 

Desirous of discovering a strait which would enable him 
to return with speed to the Atlantic, he sailed up the Mexican 
and Californian coasts to the forty-third degree of latitude — 
corresponding to the south part of Oregon — and entered the 
harbor of San Francisco. It was so called by the English 
in his honor. But the change of climate from that of the 
tropics, was complained of. by the men, who also were prob- 
ably unwilling to lose themselves and their ill-gotten gold 
among the remote inlets and seas which had proved so disas- 
trous to the fortunes of Frobisher. Drake, therefore, after 
naming the country which he had discovered for the English, 
New Albion, sailed westward, the summer of 1579, across the 
Pacific, and reaching England in safety, completed the second 
circumnavigation of the globe. 

California was the name, happily retained, which had already 
been given to that country by the Spaniards. The coast had been 
explored in 1542 by a Portuguese in the Spanish service, named 
Cabrillo, who had gone nearly as far northward as the mouth of the 
Columbia river. 

Thirteen years after Drake's appearance on the Oregon coast 
(1592), Juan de Fuca, a Greek, likewise in the employ of Spain, sailed 
for twenty days in the broad passage between Vancouver's island 
and the mainland. He supposed that he had discovered the 
western end of a great inter-oceanic passage of which the gulf of 
St. Lawrence was the eastern entrance. 



84 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1584 

RALEIGH AND THE ROANOKE SETTLEMENTS. 

Notwithstanding the ill-success of the efforts of Gilbert, 
and the sad fate of that officer, it was not long before his 
brother Raleigh revived the scheme of American coloniza- 
tion. The new patent conferred by Elizabeth — with whom 
the learned and courteous Raleigh was then a rising favorite — 
constituted him a lord proprietary over a large extent of coun- 
try, with the power to receive rents and to make grants at his 
pleasure. Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow were the 
commanders of the two vessels of Raleigh's, which, in 1584, 
sailed with the purpose of determining the site for a colony. 
It was to be located in a climate milder than that of New- 
foundland, and far enough removed therefrom to avoid inter- 
ference with its fisheries; while on the other hand it should 
be sufficiently distant from the Spanish forts of Florida. 

Amidas and Barlow followed what was then the favorite 
route to America, via the Canaries and the West India islands. 
As they came up the American coast, and, when opposite the 
shores of Carolina, drew near to land, their pleasure at the 
appearance of the strange vegetation and the delightful fra- 
grance which filled the air, found expression in language like 
to that of the mariners of Verrazzani many years before. A 
suitable harbor was not readily discovered; but after coasting 
the long, unbroken island-beach that trends north-eastwardly 
from Cape Lookout, they came to Ocracoke inlet, the lower 
entrance into Pamlico sound. Here, on the point of the 
island Wokoken, forming the south shore of the inlet, the 
ceremony of the queen of England's sovereignty to the coun- 
try was duly enacted. 

By invitation of some of the natives — all of whom had 
treated them hospitably — they sailed across Pamlico sound to 
Roanoke island, the low, sandy island which separates the 
former from Albemarle sound. Here a traffic was entered 



1585] THE ROANOKE SETTLEMENTS. 85 

into with the natives, two of whom, named Wanchese and 
Manteo, were willing to go back with the adventurers to 
England. Thither they sailed as soon as the vessels had re- 
ceived their cargo : cedar-wood, peltry purchased of the 
Indians, and bark of the sassafras — an American tree which 
had been previously found in Florida, and was already much 
esteemed in Europe for its medicinal and aromatic properties. 

The glowing report of the voyagers, together with the 
commercial products returned, produced a favorable influence 
on the public mind in England. The name of Virginia was 
forthwith conferred upon' the country by Raleigh, in honor 
of the virgin queen ; and inasmuch as it is not unusual for the 
recipients of such compliments to make some acknowledg- 
ment of the fact, so it happened that Raleigh was made a 
knight in consideration of past services, and was granted a 
monopoly in sweet wines to aid him in planting a colony. 

Raleigh immediately despatched a second expedition, of 
which Sir Richard Grenville was appointed commander. 
Ralph Lane was named as governor; Hariot, a man of science, 
was to gather the facts of interest in his department ; Wythe, 
a painter, was to be delineator and draughtsman. The expe- 
dition of seven ships left England in the spring of 1585, and, 
with a keen lookout for the possible prize of a Spanish galleon, 
took the circuitous route by the Canaries and West Indies. 
In sailing along the Carolina coast, the fleet narrowly escaped 
shipwreck upon Cape Fear; in commemoration of which fact, 
that prominent headland received its ominous name. Sailing 
into Ocracoke inlet, the fleet made its way to the harboring- 
station at Roanoke island. Manteo, one of the natives who 
had been taken to England, and who was now fitted to act as 
guide and interpreter, went to the mainland to announce their 
arrival. 

Grenville explored the neighboring shores, and visited the 
Indian villages thereabout; but at one of them a most lament- 



86 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1586 

able incident occurred. A silver cup had been stolen, it was 
said, by the natives ; the demand for its restoration was not 
promptly complied with; and then, with a brutal retaliation 
utterly disproportioned to the offence, Grenville ordered the 
village to be burnt, and the fields of standing corn to be de- 
stroyed ! By this cruel act they forfeited, in one hasty hour, 
the good-will and friendly aid of the natives. Grenville 
landed the colonists, to the number of one hundred and ten 
men, and leaving them in charge of Lane, the appointed 
governor, sailed back to England, capturing on the way a rich 
Spanish prize, with which to enter triumphantly the harbor 
of Plymouth. He appears to have coveted piratical booty 
much more than he did the prosperity of the queen's settle- 
ments in the New World. 

In the meantime, Lane and his men employed themselves in 
further exploring the shores of the sounds, and the entrances 
of the rivers; Hariot diligently examined the natural products 
of the country, not the least important of which he accounted 
tobacco; while Wythe made sketches of the natives. Deluded 
by foolish tales of rich mines of gold to be found far up the 
river Roanoke, Lane attempted to ascend the rapid current 
of that stream ; but having made very little progress, and his 
provisions being exhausted, he was compelled to return. The 
Indians were becoming disquieted at the presence of the 
whites, whose power for evil they had so soon learned to fear. 
In the spring of the new year, the natives, with the intention 
of causing a famine which would have compelled the de- 
parture of their enemies, would have left their fields unplanted, 
but this counsel was overruled by the moderation of one of 
the chiefs. 

The English had not yet learned aright the lessons taught by 
the many failures of their predecessors; they were still un- 
willing to till the soil for their sustenance, and earn an honest 
livelihood by that and by barter, but would fain grovel in 



15S6] THE ROANOKE SETTLEMENTS. 87 

mines for gold, or, if need be, steal it from its ''savage" 
possessors. But Avarice and Suspicion usually go hand-in- 
hand. The colonists professed to believe that a combination 
of the Indians was forming, for the purpose of getting rid of 
them by a general massacre. Concealing their suspicions, 
Lane treacherously requested a parley with the most active one 
of the chiefs, and then, at a preconcerted signal, this chief 
and his eight principal followers were overcome and merci- 
lessly put to death. 

As the summer advanced, and provisions became scarce, 
parties of the colonists were dispersed in search of food. One 
of these, on Cape Lookout, descried to their great surprise, 
a fleet of over twenty sail. The signals which they made 
were observed, and communication opened. It proved to be 
Sir Francis Drake on his way home from an expedition of 
plunder amongst the Spanish West Indian possessions. Rich 
in the booty obtained, he was generous in offers of help to 
the despairing colonists — tendered them a ship, several boats 
and quantities of provisions. But these were all destroyed in 
a storm which arose while Drake yet tarried ; and then. Lane 
having refused to accept further assistance, returned with his 
men in the war-fleet to England. Yet he had hardly left the 
coast, when a vessel, with abundant supplies sent over by 
Raleigh, arrived at Roanoke ; while a fortnight later came 
Grenville with three more ships. Having left fifteen men on 
the island, to be the custodians of his country's rights, Gren- 
ville departed ; but, feeling reluctant to return home empty- 
handed, he plundered the Portuguese settlements in the Azore 
islands. 

Still undismayed, the indefatigable Raleigh planned yet 
another expedition ; and with the hope of making it more 
certain of success, he wisely determined to send out not single 
men only, but also yeomen with their families, who would be 
apt to feel a more settled, personal interest in the enterprise. 



88 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1590 

A charter of incorporation was prepared in advance for the 
" City of Raleigh," and John White with eleven others, were 
designated as the governor and assistant officers. It had been 
intended by Raleigh that the colony should be located on 
Chesapeake Bay, but the officer in command of the ships was 
eager to be off" to the West Indies, so he landed the colonists 
on Roanoke island (1587). The houses of the previous set- 
tlers were still standing, but they were overgrown with weeds 
and vines. The fifteen men who had been left by Grenville, 
were not found — they had no doubt been murdered by the 
Indians in revenge for the death of their chief. 

The hostility of the natives was presently evinced in the 
murder of one of the governor's assistants, who had strolled 
a short distance from the fort. In haste to retaliate, the whites 
attacked an Indian party at night, and had slain several of 
their number before it was discovered that they were a friendly 
band. Manteo, the interpreter, continued to be attached to 
the whites, and having been baptized by a priest, was after- 
wards invested with the title of the "lord of Roanoke." 
When the time came for the departure of the vessels. White, at 
the urgent request of the settlers, consented to go back to 
England, to hasten the promised supplies. He left on the 
island over one hundred men and women, besides several 
children, one of the latter being his grand-daughter, Virginia 
Dare, the first English child born in America. 

Three long years elapsed before the governor again ap- 
proached the sandy beach of Roanoke island. He had found 
upon his return to England, that the whole country was in a 
fever of excitement at the prospect of a great invasion by the 
Spanish Armada of Philip II. His services, as well as those 
of Raleigh, were called for, and thus the colony for a time 
was reluctantly neglected. When finally, in the autumn of 
1590, White landed at Roanoke, the prattling lips of little 
Virginia Dare were not to be heard in welcoming accents 



i6o2] VOVAG£S OF GOSNOLD, PRING, ETC. 89 

by her long-absent grandsire. Not one of the unfortunate 
colony was anywhere to be found, or was ever afterward 
heard of! 



VOYAGES OF GOSNOLD, PRING AND WEYMOUTH. 

Hitherto, as has been already observed, English voyages to 
the temporary American settlements had usually been made 
by way of the Canaries and the West Indies. A more expe- 
ditious route was chosen by Bartholomew Gosnold, who, 
in 1602, with the concurrence of Raleigh, steered directly 
across the Atlantic and approached the continent near the 
present harbor of Portland. As he sailed southward, probably 
in the track of Thorfinn and the sons of Eric, Gosnold landed 
on a promontory which he called Cape Cod — the first land in 
New England, so far as he knew, ever trodden by Englishmen. 
Farther south he entered Buzzard's Bay, called by them 
" Gosnold's Hope," and, on the westernmost of the Elizabeth 
Islands they landed, with the expectation of establishing a 
settlement. While the fort was being built, part of the crew 
loaded the ship with sassafras root purchased from the natives; 
but when the vessel was ready to sail, those who were to have 
remained lost heart, and, embarking with the rest, returned to 
England. 

In the following year, certain merchants of Bristol, en- 
couraged by Raleigh, and by Hakluyt (the compiler of the 
narratives of these early voyages), continued the discoveries 
of Gosnold, by sending out two vessels under the care of 
Michael Pring. The traffic for sassafras root was also a 
chief incentive. Pring reached the coast about the mouth of 
the Penobscot, and sailed slowly southward, entering a number 
of the harbors that abound in that locality, until he came to 
Martha's Vineyard. With the trinkets and articles of mer- 
chandise brought out, Pring obtained sufficient sassafras, skins 

8* 



po HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1605 

and furs to load his vessels with profitable cargoes for his 
employers. 

In 1605, Cape Cod was again visited by the expedition of 
an experienced navigator, George Weymouth, who sailed 
under the auspices of the Earl of Southampton and others. 
He also entered the harbor of St. George's at the mouth of 
the bay of Fundy, and made accurate observations of the 
natural productions of the country, besides trading somewhat 
with the natives for sables and the skins of deer, beaver, etc. 
Wishing to obtain some of the natives to be instructed as 
guides and interpreters for future expeditions, five of these 
were decoyed on board, and carried with them to England. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COLONIZATION OF VIRGINIA. 

1607 — 1624. 



JAMESTOWN— THE FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 

It having been clearly proved that the great territory which 
had been discovered beyond the Atlantic was a continent un- 
connected with, and indeed separated by a vast ocean from 
that of Asia, the desire amongst maritime nations to establish 
permanent settlements upon the shores of the New World be- 
came stronger with each succeeding year. With the English, 
the discouraging results attending the Raleigh settlements in 
Carolina, soon gave place to the hope of a profitable traffic, 
as developed by the expeditions of Gosnold, Fringe and Wey- 
mouth. 

In the year succeeding Weymouth's return (1606), there 
was organized the London Company, of which the treasurer 
was Sir Thomas Smith, who was also one of the possessors of 
the patent which had been issued by King James the First to 
Raleigh. The code of laws was framed according to the 
royal ideas, though not strictly in accordance with the wishes 
of those whom they were intended to govern. The king was 
to appoint a superior council, resident in England, whose 
members could be removed at his pleasure ; but the colony 
was also permitted a domestic council of its own, though its 
members and its decrees were likewise subject to the king's 
approval. For the first twenty-one years, the Virginia planta- 
tion was to receive all duties levied on vessel-s trading to its 

91 



92 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1606 



harbors ; after that time, the right was to be surrendered to 
the crown. The charter was good in so far as the king acted 
as a check upon possible oppression by the London Company 
which established the plantation ; but it was objectionable, in 
that the people of the plantation could not choose the members 
of their domestic council, who were obviously the ones best 
situated to judge of their wants. 

The code of laws provided that the doctrines and rites of 
the Church of England were to be the established religion. 
It decreed the punishment of death not only in cases of 
murder, but also of dangerous tumults and seditions. All the 
produce resulting from the labor of the settlers for five years 
succeeding their landing, was to be held in common. It was 
to be stored in suitable magazines, superintended by a " cape 
merchant," and two clerks were to take note of all that went 
in and came out from the same. 

The preliminaries of government being thus arranged in 
advance, the little squadron of three vessels, commanded by 
Christopher Newport, sailed in the latter part of the year 
1606, for the American shores. Of the one hundred and five 
men on board the vessels, who were intended as colonists, 
forty-eight were styled " gentlemen." Dissensions sprang up 
amongst them on the voyage, growing out of the uncertainty 
as to who were to be the colonial councillors, the names of 
these having been carefully sealed up in a tin box along with 
the instructions of King James. In addition to the so-called 
gentlemen, there were a few laborers and artisans, besides 
soldiers and servants. Prominent among the company, were 
Wingfield, a rich merchant and a projector of the colony; 
John Smith, an energetic adventurer ; Robert Hunt, an 
amiable and worthy clergyman ; and the voyager Gosnold. 

Newport, instead of following Gosnold's former track 
directly across the Atlantic, took the much longer route by 
way of the West Indies. A severe storm drove the vessels 



i6o7] CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 93 

beyond the Pamlico inlets, to the great bay of the Chesapeake 
— "the mother of the waters." The head-lands at its entrance 
they named after the sons of King James — the lower one Cape 
Henry, after the Prince of Wales, a youth of good promise, 
and the upper one Cape Charles, from the king's second son 
who afterwards ascended the throne. Upon the noble stream, 
the Powhatan, which they ascended, they conferred the name 
of King James. About fifty miles above the river's mouth, 
where they arrived the 13th of the 5th month (May), 1607, 
they selected a site for their settlement, which was called 
James' town. The sealed box having been opened, the 
names of Wingfield, Gosnold, Smith, Newport and three 
others were found in it, as those who were to compose the 
council ; and of these seven, Wingfield was elected president. 
Smith was at first excluded upon a false charge of sedition, 
but by the mediation of Hunt, was soon honorably restored. 

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

This Captain John Smith, who is the central figure in the 
first two years of Virginia's history, was a man whose promi- 
nent traits of character were a great readiness of invention 
and promptitude in time of danger — habits of self-reliance 
which invested him with a talent for command. Although 
but thirty years of age at this time, his life had been one of 
many adventures : fighting in the Netherlands against the 
Spanish rulers, and in Hungary against the invading Mahom- 
medans — carried a captive to Constantinople and sold as a 
slave — a prisoner in a Russian fortress and then the slayer of 
his task-master — next, a fugitive across the Mediterranean to 
the kingdom of Morocco. Finally, having returned to Eng- 
land, he made the acquaintance of Gosnold, with whom he 
ardently entered into the scheme of American colonization. 

His first service in the new colony was to accompany New- 



94 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1607 

port and twenty others up the river to the Falls of the James, 
which are opposite the present city of Richmond. A mile 
below the falls, on a rising-ground is the plantation yet known 
as " Powhatan," and it was here that the great chief of that 
name had his wigwam. He was a tall, athletic man, about 
sixty years of age, and was the ruler of more than forty clans 
or small tribes, which were thinly scattered over the territory 
of the lower Potomac and the James. The settlers called 
them all by the general name of their chiefs — the Powhatans. 
The Monicans dwelt on the upper James, and the Mannahoacs 
upon the upper courses of the Potomac and the Rappahannoc; 
while at the head of Chesapeake bay were the Susquehannocs. 
All of these tribes belonged to the Algonquin race. 

Early in the summer, Newport returned to England, leaving 
the chief management of affairs in the hands of Smith, al- 
though Ratcliffe was then the inefficient president of the 
council. The spirits and health of the company were at a 
low ebb. The small allowance of provisions which was doled 
out from the common store, consisted principally of wheat 
and barley which had been damaged on ship-board. Crabs 
and sturgeon, however, were obtained from the river. But 
disappointment and melancholy, together with lack of nour- 
ishing food, soon resulted in an outbreak of disease, and, 
before autumn, fifty men (one of whom was Gosnold) had 
died. Had the Indians now deserted them, the colonists 
would have been in a fair way to perish entirely, but the 
"savages," when the autumn came, and their harvests were 
gathered, brought voluntary offerings of corn and fruits and 
venison. The health of the colonists soon improved, and, 
directed by their energetic leader, they erected a palisadoed 
fort, as well as huts to protect themselves from the rigor of 
winter. 

As the men became better reconciled to their situation. 
Smith determined to leave them for awhile, for the purpose 



i6o8] CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 95 

of exploring the country. Accompanied only by two of his 
men and two Indian guides, he ascended the Chickahominy, 
until the canoe would float no longer. Then with a single 
Indian he struck inland, but, being attacked by a party of 
natives, was made prisoner, after a vigorous defence in which 
three of his assailants were killed. His captors would probably 
have taken his life at once, but he exhibited to them a pocket 
compass, and otherwise amused them, so that, becoming elated 
at their triumph in securing such a mortal, they carried him 
through their villages until they had reached the residence of 
Powhatan, who at that time was on the York river, not far 
north of Jamestown. 

The chief and his councillors doomed their prisoner to 
death, but just as the sentence was about to be executed, and 
the tomahawk was uplifted, Pocahontas, the daughter of the 
chief — a gentle maiden scarcely twelve years of age — sprang 
forward, and clinging to the neck of the captain, interceded 
with her father for his life. Her request was granted, and, 
after seven weeks' captivity. Smith was sent back to James- 
town, accompanied by several Indian guides. After the rescue, 
Pocahontas, with her companions, went to the fort every few 
days, carrying baskets of corn for the use of the garrison. 

Shortly after Smith's return, Newport arrived from Eng- 
land with 120 emigrants, though not of the sort who were 
calculated to add to the well-being of the colony, being 
mostly gentlemen and goldsmiths. Like the adventurers who 
went with Frobisher, these treasure-hunters soon discovered 
what they believed to be gold, and loaded one of the vessels 
with the worthless earth and stones. The other vessel Smith 
prevailed on the men to load with skins, furs, and cedar-wood 
— the first exportation of value from Virginia. 

In the summer of 1608, while the settlers were rebuilding 
their huts, which had been destroyed by a fire, Smith,, with 
eleven companions, undertook the exploration of Chesapeake 



96 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1609 

bay, which he surveyed to tlie mouth of the Susquehanna. 
So many and so devious are the coast-lines of tliis great bay, 
that Smitli's investigations embraced nearly 3000 miles of 
navigation ; the Potomac was also ascended as far as the lo- 
cality of Washington. Upon Smith's return, he was elected 
president of the council. And now Newport appeared again 
with yet more undesirable and unwelcome recruits, which 
obliged Smith to write to the London Company, "When 
you send again, I entreat you, rather send but thirty carpen- 
ters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, 
and diggers-up-of-trees-roots, well-provided, than a thousand 
of such as we have." Nevertheless, Smith was strenuous in 
obliging every one to work — six hours a day being the time 
allotted — and so the settlers passed tlie summer in a far better 
state of health than they did the year preceding. When 
Newport's vessel sailed, it carried back a cargo of wainscot 
and clapboards, and also some tar, pitch and potash, pre- 
pared by several Germans who were among the last who came. 

Although the Virginia colony could not be said to be in 
a flourishing condition, the London Corporation, having 
changed its title, put forth great efforts to make the under- 
taking popular. They obtained a new charter, in which it 
was provided that the affairs and laws of the colony should be 
regulated by the superior council in England, who should 
choose a governor; that the colonial council at Jamestown 
should be abolished, and that the governor should exercise its 
former powers. They were given all the territory north and 
south of the James, 200 miles each way, and extending west- 
ward to the Pacific. 

The governor first appointed was Lord Delaware. Not 
being ready to leave England at once, the fleet of nine vessels 
and 500 colonists set sail (1609) without him, Newport and 
two others being designated to act as commissioners until he 
should arrive. But it hajjpened that the vessel in which were 



i6io] COLONY UNDER THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 97 

the commissioners, liaving been stranded in a storm upon the 
Bermudas, did not appear until several months after the others. 
The new colonists being inclined to dispute the authority of 
Smith, he partly got rid of them by establishing two new set- 
tlements, one at the Falls of the James, and the other at 
Nansemond — near where Richmond and Norfolk now stand. 
The unruly behavior of these new-comers soon involved 
them in disputes with the Indians, while Smith himself, being 
severely wounded by an accidental discharge of powder, was 
obliged to return to England for surgical aid. At his depart- 
ure, the colony numbered about 500 persons. At Jamestown, 
there was a fort, a chapel and a storehouse, besides about 60 
dwellings; also a few horses, swine and other domestic ani- 
mals. Only about forty acres of land were in cultivation, so 
that the colonists were obliged to depend for food mainly on 
the corn, purchased or extorted from the Indians. 



THE COLONY UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGINIA 
COMPANY. 

The six months following the departure of Smith, were 
long remembered in the colony as the Starving Time. All 
discipline was given up by the settlers, who forsook the reg- 
ular system of labor which Smith had established, and, while 
consuming the general stock of provisions, became idle and 
riotous. A famine was the consequence. They also lost the 
good-will of the Indians, who waylaid and killed many of 
those who wandered off in search of food. Thirty of the 
colonists, under plea of their necessities, seized a vessel and 
sailed away, purposing to become pirates. Only sixty persons 
out of nearly 500 remained, when, in the spring of 1610, 
Newport, Gates and Somers, the three commissioners of the 
London Virginia Company, arrived from the scene of their 
wreck on the Bermudas. 

E 9 



98 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [i6il 

The settlers could probably have survived but ten days longer 
had not the commissioners come thus timely to their relief; 
but as their own company, comprising 150 men, had but a few 
days' provisions for themselves, it was resolved to abandon 
Virginia and to sail for Newfoundland, where succor could 
be obtained from the fishermen. The settlers had actually 
embarked, and were sailing down the river, when the three 
ships of Lord Delaware, with provisions and colonists, met 
tnem. Thankful for this second relief, they landed once 
more, and the habitations of Jamestown were again peopled. 
But the health of the governor very soon declining, he was 
forced to return to England, leaving the colony in charge of 
Lord Percy. 

Percy was not long in office, when he was succeeded (161 1) 
as deputy by Sir Thomas Dale, who came over with more 
men and supplies. He was furnished with a printed code of 
laws, harsh in their nature, and which remained for eight 
years the martial law of the colony. Sir Thomas Gates, one 
of the late commissioners, but now the appointed governor, 
also brought over 300 men, as well as a hundred cattle. The 
animals, indeed, were better assurances of permanency than 
many men would have been, and their importation was a step 
which proved the wisdom of Lord Cecil, who had a control- 
ling voice in the affairs of the company. The plantation of 
Henrico — so named from Prince Henry, the eldest son of the 
king — was founded by Dale upon the river, in the neighbor- 
hood of the wigwams of Powhatan : and where the Appo- 
mattox enters the James, was established another settlement, 
called New Bermuda. The Indians were driven away from 
their cabins and fields, and stockades were ejected that the 
English might not in their turn be tlius unjustly treated. 

There now happened an event in tlie colony which proved 
instrumental in bringing about more friendly relations with 
the Indians than had recently existed. Captain Samuel 



i6i6] COLONY UNDER THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. pg 

Argall, having gone up the Potomac on a trading expedition, 
found the princess Pocahontas there, and having enticed her 
on board his ship, carried her back with him to Jamestown. 
Powhatan demanded tlie release of his daughter, but it being 
refused unless a ransom was given, the chief prepared to make 
war. But a settler named John Rolfe, an honest and pious 
young Englishman, feeling a strong sympathy for the Indian 
maiden, labored for her conversion. Being of a docile spirit 
and quick of apprehension, she made satisfactory progress, 
and their friendship having ripened into attachment, Rolfe 
desired her in marriage. Powhatan assented, and Pocahontas 
having received the rite of water baptism, the couple were 
united in the chapel at Jamestown. 

Argall, the captor of Pocahontas, a coarse and i)assionate 
man, hearing that the French were establishing themselves 
on the coasts of Maine and Acadie (which were claimed as 
being within the jurisdiction of the English), hastened to 
dislodge them. He cannonaded their settlements on Mont 
Desert island, at St. Croix and Port Royal — the deserted 
houses of the latter being set on fire, and those on Mont 
Desert given over to pillage. He also entered the mouth 
of the Hudson, where, on Manhattan island, Dutch traders 
had settled. These acknowledged the authority of England 
while Argall was there, but hoisted the Dutch flag as soon as 
their troublesome visitor had departed. 

In 1616, Dale, who had served with firmness and efficiency 
after Gates' return home, himself went back to England, 
having appointed George -Yeardley to be deputy. At this time 
tobacco had become the favorite production of the colonists, 
so that not only the gardens and fields, but even the streets 
of Jamestown, were allowed for the culture of the weed which 
was destined to become Virginia's chief staple. Anxious to 
realize the high price which the article commanded, the 
settlers devoted so exclusive an attention to its production 



lOO HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1619 

that they were in danger of suffering from dearth of food to 
eat. 

Each settler had at first been allowed 100 acres of land, 
for which an annual quit-rent of two shillings was to be paid to 
the company, but this allowance of land was now reduced 
one-half. Many who received grants paid a corn rent, and 
in this manner the colonial officials at first received their 
salaries. The governor had a plantation cultivated by a hun- 
dred indentured servants of the company. Grants of land 
were likewise made for meritorious services, but not to a 
greater extent than 2000 acres ; yet these favors were not 
always well-bestowed, while the consequent engrossment of 
lands for such purposes gave rise to much complaint. 

Upon Dale's return to England, there was considerable con- 
tention between George Yeardlev, whom Dale had nomi- 
nated as his successor, and the friends of Argall. The latter 
individual obtained the office for awhile, but complaints of his 
misbehavior having been made to the Virginia Company, Lord 
Delaware was empowered to restore tranquillity. He started 
with that intent, but died on the voyage across the ocean : 
it is said, at the entrance of that bay to which his name 
has been given. Yeardley having been appointed governor, 
with the title of baronet, then came over to Virginia ; while 
Argall, fearing lest his ill-gotten property would be confis- 
cated, escaped with it to the West Indies. 

When Yeardley arrived in Virginia (1619), twelve years 
after its first settlement, there were but 600 colonists and 7 
distinct plantations. Having added four others, he called a 
meeting of the first colonial assembly. It was composed of 
the governor, a council, and of deputies or burgesses from the 
II plantations. John Pory was elected speaker, and acts were 
passed which gave general satisfaction. 

The colonists, feeling now that their rights were regarded, 
and that Virginia was indeed their country, applied themselves 



i62i] COLONY UNDER THE VIKChVIA COMPANY. joi 

industriously to the work of building houses and cultivating 
their fields. And in order tliat they might become still more 
attached to the soil, by adopting domestic and virtuous habits, 
the company sent over to Jamestown ninety young women, 
''agreeable persons, young and incorrupt," who were taken 
as wives by the planters. Sixty more were despatched the 
next year, and realized a still better price than the first. One 
hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco was the average price 
paid by a planter to the company, for its trouble and expense 
in furnishing him with an amiable partner. This expedient 
stimulated emigration to such an extent, that in three years 
the colony had increased in numbers to about 4000 persons. 

Upon the promulgation by the company of tlie written 
constitution of the colony, which was sent thither in 1621, 
Sir Francis Wyatt was appointed governor. He was in- 
structed to restrict the cultivation of tobacco, for its use was 
as yet limited, and the market soon became overstocked. It 
was therefore recommended that more attention should be 
given to corn, cattle, and grape growing, as well as to the 
culture of silk by planting mulberry-trees. The latter indus- 
try, however, was not destined to succeed, the population 
being too sparse for its profitable cultivation ; but it is inter- 
esting to note that at that time (1621) were here planted the 
first cotton seeds in the United States, and their favorable 
growth soon attracted especial attention. Wyatt was also 
enjoined to preserve peaceable relations with the Indians, but 
those injunctions came too late to avert the calamity which 
presently followed. 

Powhatan was dead, and in his place ruled Opechancanough, 
a bold and cunning chief, who showed little of that regard for 
the English which had been latterly manifested by his elder 
brother. But it is clear that the English had not exhibited, 
in their conduct toward the natives, those Christian traits the 
exercise of which would not have fixiled to ripen into true 



I02 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1622 

attachment. More than that, they had not regarded the 
simplest principles of justice. The intruders had continued 
laying out plantations, erecting their dwellings where once 
the wigwams of the Indians stood upon the banks of their 
beautiful Powhatan ; and now, in the eagerness of the settlers 
to secure the best lands for tobacco culture, they had pene- 
trated northward, nearly or quite to the Potomac. What 
compensation had the natives received for all this broad 
domain? Where indeed would they be in a few years, if 
strangers continued to steal their lands at the rate they were 
now doing? The Indians believed that their only safety was 
in the extermination of the whites, and, incensed at the mur- 
der of one of their principal warriors, they delayed no longer 
to raise the tomahawk. 

The various tribes which comprised the Powhatans, did not 
number, however, over 2500 warriors, and being scattered 
over a large extent of territory, and located a itw together in 
little villages, their murderous design was not suspected by the 
whites. But at mid-day of the 22d of the 3d month (March), 
1622, the Indians fell upon the settlers " like a thunderbolt 
from a clear sky," and in one hour 350 of the inhabitants had 
been massacred. Jamestown itself and several of the adjacent 
settlements, were apprised by a friendly Indian of the intended 
attack, and escaped the carnage which prevailed in the other 
districts. The Indians, finding themselves unable to do fur- 
ther mischief, quickly retreated, while the colonists, for con- 
venience of defence, having been all collected on six of the 
80 plantations, entered upon a bloody war of extermination, 
in which the natives were slain without mercy. The imme- 
diate results of this retaliatory policy were disastrous to the 
prosperity of the colony ; sickness and scarcity of food 
prevailed] the college estate, a tract of 10,000 acres, was 
abandoned ; and the small glass and iron works, which had 
been operated by some Italians and Dutch, were destroyed. 



1 624] SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA. 103 

Fourteen years elapsed before a peace was made with the 
natives. 

In London, there were now great dissensions among the 
1000 stockholders of the Virginia Company, a portion of 
whom, seeing only ruin before them, appealed to King James 
for an investigation into the company's affairs. The king, 
for several years, had desired to exercise a more personal 
control in colonial matters, and hence readily replied to the 
application by the appointment of commissioners, who at 
once proceeded to the colony. 

The report of the commissioners upon the state of the 
colony was unfavorable, yet they esteemed the plantation to 
be an important acquisition to the dominion of the king, and 
made such recommendations as the latter had desired. The 
matter being heard in court, the judges, whose positions were 
at the mercy of the king, entered a decree against the cor- 
poration, whereby its patents became forfeited. Thus the 
London Virginia Company, in 1624, ceased to exist, after 
spending ^150,000 in establishing a colony, the returns from 
which had as yet been meagre indeed. 



SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA. 

Somewhat has been said, in the preceding chapters, of the 
traffic in negro slaves, as carried on by the Spanish and Por- 
tuguese. It was in the summer of 161 9, while Yeardley was 
governor, that the curse of slavery was fastened upon the 
" Old Dominion," and it was in a Dutch man-of-war that the 
first instalment of twenty negroes was brought, and landed at 
Jamestown, to be sold to the planters. For many years it 
was almost entirely the Dutch, who were concerned in bring- 
ing them to the Virginia market. Nevertheless, their intro- 
duction was not by any means rapid, for at the end of thirty 



I04 HISTORY OF TIIE UNITED STATES. [1624 

years after the first importation, the proportion of negroes to 
whites in the colony, was but one in fifty. 

Although the Dutch, who drove out the Portuguese in the East 
Indies, claimed to be a reformed people, they exhibited toward the 
natives of those lands a measure of savage cruelty but little inferior 
to that which had characterized their Papist predecessors. In the 
islands of the Java seas there were secret prisons, known to, and 
upholden by, the chief men and magistrates, in which kidnapped 
natives were confined, to be sold abroad as slaves. Any man, 
woman, or child, might be suddenly carried off to these secret 
prisons, where they were kept until a ship's cargo of victims was 
secured — then marched out in chains at night and put aboard the 
vessel, with no hope of relief or rescue. 

Amongst the nations called Christian, of a few centuries 
ago, there was a strange discrimination entertained as to what 
was fair and what was really wrong in the infliction of a state 
of servitude. For instance, the strangers and the heathens 
of old time were mentioned as having been made slaves of by 
the Israelites, a course sanctioned by the law of Moses; and 
thus it was agreed that when. Christians came in contact with 
such "heathens and strangers" as the negroes, the Moors, 
and the Indians, the proper course to take with them was to 
place them in a condition of bondage. 

But there was another form of servitude — the system of 
indenturing, or apprenticeship of white persons — which dif- 
fered from the first only in the duration of bondage. This 
prevailed largely in Virginia prior to the introduction of 
negroes. These white servants were first sold in England, to 
be transported; were sold again upon their arrival in Virginia, 
to the highest bidder ; and had then to give their excltisive 
labor for a term of years to clear thernselves of the cost of 
their transportation. The planters would go aboard the ships 
upon their arrival in port, and would often pay for the servants 
four or five times what tliey had cost in England. Some of 



1 624] SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA. 105 

these servants were prisoners of war; others, again, were 
known to the colonists as "jail-birds," being convicts who 
had been taken from British prisons by the king's orders, and 
shipped to the colony for sale as servants. It has been already 
stated that the salaries of a number of the colonial officers 
were paid in the labor of these indentured servants, and that 
the governor had as many as 100 assigned to his use. The 
colonial treasurer and the marshal, had each 1500 acres, cul- 
tivated by 50 indentured tenants ; the colonial physician re- 
ceived 500 acres and 20 tenants; while to each clergyman, 
there appertained, besides the regular tax of tobacco, 100 
acres, cultivated by 6 tenants. This system of limited slavery, 
or peonage, made the way easy for the introduction of the 
practice of life-long bondage. 

Amongst those who were thus sold to America were Scots taken 
at the battle of Dunbar ; Royalist prisoners taken by Covenanters 
at the battle of Worcester, and others from Wales ; likewise sedi- 
tious Romanists from Ireland, who were sent away in large num- 
bers, and in a manner, says Lingard, " hardly inferior to the usual 
atrocities of the African slave-trade." 



*E 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF CANADA. 

1598 — 1662. 



DE MONTS: THE SETTLEMENT OF PORT ROYAL. 

During all the century preceding the English occupation 
of Virginia, the fishermen of Newfoundland and the neigh- 
boring shores, found profitable occupation in cod-fishing, and 
also in capturing the walrus, whose tusks of ivory were a valu- 
able article of commerce. The harvest of the fur-trappers 
and traders was likewise at hand, and, besides lesser peltry, 
the skins of the bear and the bison began to be brought for- 
ward for the European market. Within a few years after 
Cartier and Roberval ascended the St. Lawrence, the Indians, 
having heard of the demand for skins, brought them in large 
quantities to the mouth of the river — as many as 6000 buffalo 
skins alone being thus disposed of in two years. The French, 
and particularly the hardy mariners of St. Malo, enjoyed the 
monopoly of this constantly- increasing trade. 

Roberval's title of "Lieutenant-General of Canada, New- 
foundland, Labrador, and the adjacent territory," though 
rather an empty honor, it is true, was next conferred by King 
Henry IV. upon the Marquis de la Roche. Crossing the 
ocean (1598) to take possession of his extensive dominion. La 
Roche left forty men on Sable island — opposite the southern 
point of Nova Scotia — intending to return after he had further 
explored the coast. But a storm of long continuance having 
106 



i604] DE MO NTS. 1 07 

driven his vessel far off the shore, he conchided to go back to 
France. For some political offence, La Roche was thrust into 
prison, and, unfortunately, five years elapsed before the Sable 
islanders, now but twelve in number, were rescued and brought 
back to their own land. They were conducted into the pres- 
ence of the king, before whom they stood (as described by a 
writer of tlie time) like river-gods of old, being clad in shaggy 
skins of seals and foxes, and with beards of prodigious length, 
that hung from their swarthy faces. The king granted them a 
bounty, which, with the sale of the furs they had accumulated, 
enabled them to embark in the Canada trade on their own 
account. 

To the SiEUR De Monts was granted a patent to colonize 
AcadieorLa Cadie, which was described as the territory lying 
between the 40th and 46th parallels of north latitude — corre- 
sponding to the section included between the present Phila- 
delphia and Montreal. De Monts sailed in 1604, having, as 
chief aids in the enterprise, Pontgrave, a merchant of Brit- 
tany, and Samuel de Champlain, a soldier who had fought 
zealously for the king, and was now quite ready for fresh ad- 
ventures. He had, a i&w years previously, ascended the St. 
Lawrence in the track of Cartier, as far as Montreal. 

De Monts and his companions sailed beyond Sable island 
into the bay of Fundy ; the Basin of Annapolis was entered, 
and named by them Port Royal ; and a fortified settlement 
was established on the little island of St. Croix, at the mouth 
of the river of the same name, which partly separates the 
present state of Maine from the province of New Brunswick. 

While the constructions at St. Croix were progressing, De 
Monts and Champlain explored the adjacent coasts of Maine 
and Massachusetts. They gave a name to the frowning cliffs 
of Mont Desert, now such a pleasure-place to tlie summer- 
sojourner; they entered the river Penobscot, which before 
had been known as the Norembcga ; passed by the Isles of 



lo8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1606 

Shoals; and in several places landed, holding conferences 
with the Indians. This was about the time when Gosnold, 
Pring and Weymouth, on behalf of the English merchants, 
were examining the same coast and bartering with the natives 
for furs 'and sassafras. The winter at St. Croix proved a 
disastrous one to the colonists; thirty-five of their number, 
or nearly one-half, dying of the scurvy. In the succeeding 
summer the settlement was abandoned, and Port Royal, across 
the bay, arose in its stead. 

When De Monts returned to France for additional colonists 
and supplies, he found a valuable ally in the person of Marc 
Tescarbot, an advocate and poet — a man of lively fancy, 
but withal of good judgment. Lescarbot came over to Port 
Royal with the baron Poutrincourt, to whom De Monts had 
made a grant of the new settlement. They prudently brought 
with them mechanics and laborers, as well as abundance of 
provisions, and the little colony started with a better promise 
of permanency than had perhaps any previous settlement in 
the New World. This was in the year 1606, one year before 
the founding of Jamestown. 

Lescarbot soon made it evident that he knew how to work 
with his hands, as well as to pen verses. In the meadows near 
the Basin of Annapolis, the grass having been first burnt off, 
he caused wheat, rye and barley to be sown. Near the fort, 
gardens were made, and so great was the zeal of Lescarbot, 
and so earnest his desire to see the work prosper, that he him- 
self plied the hoe with diligence. Port Royal was then a 
quadrangle of wooden buildings, having a bastion on the two 
water-side corners, and enclosing a spacious court. Tlie 
winter was passed agreeably, for the friendship of the Indians 
had been secured, their chiefs being invited to sit at Poutrin- 
court's table with the principal men of the colony. The 
latter adopted a recommendation of Champlain's that they 
should take turns in obtaining supplies of fresh game and 



i6ii] THE SETTLEMENT OF PORT ROYAL. 109 

fish for the table j and as it would seem to be the French- 
man's faculty to know how to provide for the larder, there 
was never any lack of fresh provisions on hand — venison and 
bear's meat, wild duck and partridge, sturgeon and codfish. 

But this quiet life and bright prospect for the future, was 
not destined to continue. In the spring came a vessel from 
France, bringing the unwelcome tidings that the patent of 
De Monts had been revoked. The monopoly to him, had, 
in the first place, been granted unjustly, for it infringed the 
rights of the fishermen ; and in the same spirit it was taken 
away. Merchants of the Norman, Breton, and Biscayan 
ports had loudly complained, using money freely at court to 
secure their object, and therefore the obnoxious patent had 
been withdrawn. With a sad heart Lescarbot left the gardens 
and corn-fields of Port Royal, which had seemed like a sort 
of pastoral in his poet's life, and in the same vessel in which 
he had come over, he and the other settlers returned to their 
native land. 

It was not long before Poutrincourt reappeared at his pos- 
session of Port Royal, and, with his son and a few otliers, 
occupied it as an intended fur-trading station. Thither in 
161 1 came two Jesuit priests — Biard and Masse — being the 
first of that Society who had appeared in the wilderness of 
New France. Two years later another vessel brought two more 
of the Order, and a settlement was begun on Mont Desert 
island. It was at this juncture that Argall, from Jamestown, 
made his appearance, as narrated in the preceding chapter. 
Having captured the French company, he proceeded to Port 
Royal, which he ordered to be plundered of its stores and 
then burnt to the ground, and by these unwarranted acts 
began that struggle between the French and English, in 
America, which was destined to continue, with intermissions, 
for a century and a half. 



no HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1608 

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, THE FOUNDER OF QUEBEC. 

Champlain had become enamoured with the wild charms 
and the life of adventure which the nearly-unexplored conti- 
nent offered, and easily persuaded some merchants of St. Malo 
and Dieppe, to provide the means for another enterprise. Two 
vessels were despatched, one of them in charge of Champlain, 
the other being intrusted to Pontgrave, who had borne an 
active part in the preceding expedition. Where the Sague- 
nay, darkly flowing between gloomy walls of precipitous rock, 
enters the broad St. Lawrence, is situated the town of Tadou- 
sac, which was at that time, and for a long while continued 
to be, the centre of the Canadian fur-trade. Here Pontgrave 
loaded his vessels, while Champlain continued up the river 
to the isle of Orleans, and on the mainland, opposite the 
island's upper extremity, founded Quebec in the summer of 
1608. 

Until cold weather came, the men employed themselves in 
building several houses for their accommodation, and also a 
strong wooden wall enclosing the same, for their protection ; 
while part of the adjoining ground was laid out as a garden, 
and herein Champlain, like Lescarbot, preferred to find em- 
ployment. But their comfortable houses and surrounding 
wall, which shielded them from the wintry blasts, were not 
proof against the inroads of the scurvy, which pestilent dis- 
ease carried away all but eight of the 28 settlers. Pontgrave, 
who in the meantime had been to France, brought them re- 
lief in the spring. Then Champlain, impatient of confine- 
ment, and eager to begin his cherished plans of exploration, 
readily acceded to the solicitation of certain Algonquin In- 
dians, from the Ottawa, to join them in a foray against their 
bitter enemies, the Iroquois. The Ottawas were to be joined 
by their allies, the Hurons, which tribe, though of the same 
race as the Iroquois, were, nevertheless, tl.eir enemies. 



i6o8] SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. m 

Several hundred of the Ottawas started up the St. Lawrence, 
accompanied by Champlain and eleven men — the French be- 
ing all armed with the arquebuse, a short firelock which was 
generally furnished with a forked rest when in use. Upon 
arriving at the river Richelieu or Sorel, they followed its 
southward course into that long, narrow lake, wliich became 
known as the Champlain. Far down its western shore were 
descried the canoes of the Iroquois. The Frenchmen at once 
clad themselves in their light armor of steel — the casque, 
breastplate and thigh-pieces — while the Iroquois, unaware of 
the presence of such potent antagonists, advanced briskly 
against them. But the arquebuse quickly did its w^ork. Levelled 
at a chief, the report came like a thunderbolt to the discon- 
certed savages; and, while the victim writhed in agony upon 
the ground, another and another sliot followed with equally 
deadly effect. The battle resulted in disaster to the Iroquois, 
while the allies, elated with their sanguinary triumph, returned 
with their prisoners northward. 

Champlain had wickedly promised to again assist the allies 
against their common enemy, with the understanding that the 
Ottawas should guide him northward to the wonderful bay — 
that of Hudson — of which rumor had reached him ; while the 
Hurons, on their part, should lead him to the chain of great 
lakes which were the reservoirs of the St. Lawrence. At the 
rendezvous, which was appointed to be at the mouth of the 
river Richelieu, in the following year, Champlain and a few 
of his companions met part of the allies. These were here 
surprised, and would probably have been overcome by an in- 
vading band of the Iroquois, but the arquebuse again caused 
the discomfiture of the latter; a barricade which they had 
erected was scaled, and nearly all its defenders were slaugh- 
tered. The words of Champlain, in his account, were — "By 
the grace of God, behold the battle won !" Yet he had 
simply bargained to become the executioner of these people, 



112 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1615 

for the privilege of being shown a great bay and a chain of 
lakes ! The body of one of the Iroquois was quartered, and 
eaten by the Indian captors, probably to infuse some of its 
superior prowess into their own systems. 

It was then a common Indian practice to devour tlie heart of a 
great warrior who had been slain in battle. Cannibalism did not 
prevail as a usage, though an enemy was occasionally eaten, as in 
the instance cited above. Amongst the Canada Algonquins, whose 
reliance for food was almost entirely on hunting, their dead com- 
panions were frequently eaten to avoid famine. With some of the 
tribes it was practised as a religious rite. There was one clan or 
family of the Miamis, with whom tlie eating of the bodies of pris- 
oners burnt to death, was a hereditary duty and privilege. 

Professing to have the conversion of the Indians of New 
France deeply at heart, Champlain returned to France, and en- 
listed in the mission cause that reformed and austere branch of 
Franciscan friars, called the Recollets. Four of these came 
back with him in 161 5 to Quebec, and established there the 
first convent in Canada. Champlain now agreed a third time 
to extend warlike aid to the Canada Indians. With a i&w 
followers, he ascended the Ottawa river to Lake Nipissing, 
whose tribe of the same name (the Nipissings) were called by 
the Jesuits, the "Sorcerers," on account of the great prevalence 
of magicians, and the supposed abundance of demons and 
spirits among them. They did not tarry in this uninviting 
company, but proceeded on their way to the Georgian bay of 
Lake Huron, and here found Le Caron, one of the four friars, 
who had gone on in advance to establish a mission-station at 
the village of the Hurons. 

Leaving the priest to attend to the souls of the women and 
children, Champlain went forward with the warriors to help 
them Tnurder their enemies. They crossed Lake Ontario at its 
eastern end, then struck south-westward to the neighborhood 
of Seneca Lake, where was located the tribe of Senecas, the most 



1632] SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. 113 

westerly of the Five Nations. The Hurons had expected to 
be joined by a large band of Eries, from the country'south of 
the lake of that name, but these not appearing, an attack was 
made on the Senecas, who were intrenched in a strong pali- 
sadoed fort, 30 feet high, having a gallery all around near the 
top. This time the assailants were driven off, and Champlain 
being wounded, the Canadian Indians returned to their own 
country. The policy inaugurated by this leader, was that 
which was usually followed by the French so long as they re- 
tained their American possessions, namely — that of making 
the Canada Indians their dependents, by inciting and aiding 
them against their native enemies, thus securing in return 
their help against the English. The English, on their part, 
made friends of the Iroquois, with the same end in view. 

In 1622 the Iroquois, smarting under their first defeats, made an 
incursion as far as the little settlement of Quebec, but were too 
wary of the fatal fire-arms of the French, to directly assault the 
place. 

The monopoly of the fur trade of New France was for a short 
time given to two Huguenot merchants, but much quarrelling ensued 
between their adherents and the Papists, so that the latter obtained 
the grant again from Cardinal Richelieu, who then wielded the chief 
power in France. He in fact organized the "Company of New 
France," composed of 100 associates, with almost unlimited powers 
over the French-American dominion, and a monopoly of its fur 
trade. But, just at that time there was war with the English, and 
Port Royal and the trading-posts at Tadousac and Quebec fell into 
the hands of the latter. They were restored to the French, how- 
ever, in 1632 ; and three years afterward, Champlain, who had 
been appointed commandant at Quebec, died there. We wish not 
to do any injustice to the character of that patient explorer and 
intrepid fighter ; yet it is evident that his acts partook strongly of 
that blood-thirsty type of Christianity which is of another nature 
from the conquests of tlie sword of the Spirit, whose captives are 
love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, etc. The very opposite of 
these attributes were the results of Champlain's campaigns. 
10* 



114 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1634 

THE JESUIT MISSIONS. 

The RecoUet priests were soon interdicted from missionary 
work in Canada; that field of labor, through the influence of 
Cardinal Richelieu, having been committed to the Jesuits. 
The zeal which has ever characterized the disciples of Loyola, 
appears to have proceeded in very many instances from an 
intense desire to propagate the Romish faith, to this end in- 
volving an implicit obedience to the will of their superiors in 
the church. Nevertheless, their early labors in Canada were 
certainly actuated to a large degree by sincerely pious motives: 
patience and unvarying kindness marked their intercourse with 
the natives, in whose hearts the strongholds of sensuality, in- 
dolence, and, above all, of superstition, were to be overcome. 
And, although the last evil was not so much removed, as it 
was lessened by a milder substitute, still their efforts in soften- 
ing the brute nature were crowned with considerable success. 
It was their hope that the wilderness of New France would 
bear the same good fruit to their devoted labors, as had been 
the case with kindred missions in Brazil and Paraguay. 

As the method of obtaining the confidence of the Indians, which 
was practised by the first Portuguese Jesuits in Paraguay, was so 
successful, we will quote what is said of their plan of conciliation 
there : " The Jesuits took with them a stock of maize as provision 
in the wilderness, where the bows of the Indians did not supply them 
with game, for they carefully avoided carrying fire-arms lest they 
should excite alarm or suspicion. When they arrived amongst the 
tribes they sought, they explained through their interpreters that 
they came thus and threw themselves into their power, to prove to 
them that they were their friends ; to teach them the arts, and to 
endow them with the advantages of the Europeans. They s])eedily 
inspired the Indians with confidence in their good intentions to- 
wards them ; for the natives of every country yet discovered have 
been found as quick in recognizing their friends as they have been 
in resenting the injuries of their enemies." As a consequence, the 
natives exhibited much improvement in their lives, and were gathered 



1634] THE JESUIT MISSIONS. II5 

into communities styled deductions, which became noted as marvels 
of good order and peacefulness ; but these were broken up by the 
Spanish and Portuguese themselves, under circumstances of ex- 
ceeding barbarity. 

The Jesuits arrived at Quebec shortly before the death of 
Champlain, and besides establishing stations at the four 
trading-posts on the St. Lawrence, they sent Brebeuf and 
others (1634) to the Huron country, to re-open the mission 
there. The locality of the Huron nation was a well-defined 
one ; they were an agricultural people, and, had not the Iro- 
quois proved such " thorns in their sides," nor the white men 
intruded, they would most likely have been found in their 
habitations by the lake to this day. Their villages, which 
contained altogether over 15,000 persons, were in that small 
section of Upper Canada included between Lake Simcoe and 
the Georgian bay of Lake Huron. South of their territory, 
and along the north side of Lake Erie, was the Neutral 
Nation, who formed a sort of barrier between the former and 
the Iroquois of New York. The Huron houses were pecu- 
liarly constructed of a framework of poles, drawn together at 
the top, and covered with bark j sometimes extending a dis- 
tance of over 200 feet in length, and of course containing 
many families under the one roof. 

Brebeuf and his associates met with great opposition from 
the sorcerers and medicine-men ; and when, upon the arrival 
of additional priests, the smallpox appeared in the villages, 
the scourge was attributed to the malignant influence of the 
"Black Robes." The sprinkling of infants, as a religious 
rite, the Indians held to be a certain evidence of sorcery. 
The Jesuits were persistent in this practice, which they held 
to be of the first importance, and as they were constantly 
watching for opportunities to make use of it, it seemed at 
times as though they would all, without doubt, be murdered. 
One of their number, named Jogues, having gone with several 



Il6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1650 

companions to Quebec for supplies, was captured on the St. 
Lawrence by a band of Mohawks, and besides being severely- 
bruised and lacerated, was carried to their towns in Eastern 
New York, and, in each of them, w^as obliged to "run the 
gauntlet," and submit to excessive tortures. After several 
months' imprisonment, Jogues escaped down the Hudson, and 
returned to France ; but having come back to the missions, he 
again fell into the hands of the Iroquois, and was massacred. 

Since the defeats inflicted upon the Iroquois or Five Nations 
by the Hurons and Ottawas, with the aid of Champlain, the 
former had been incessant in their forays into Canada; and 
now that they too had become possessed of fire-arms by 
trading with the Dutch, they were prepared to execute sum- 
mary vengeance upon their enemies. It was in 1649 and 
1650 that the memorable Iroquois onset upon the Hurons, 
and the complete dispersion of the latter, occurred. Of the 
survivors of that dreadful attack many died of famine ; many 
who had been taken prisoners were burnt to death or toma- 
hawked ; while a few were permitted to incorporate them- 
selves with the Iroquois tribes. The remnant afterwards 
dropped the name of Hurons, and became known as the 
Wyandottes. Brebeuf was among the number massacred, and 
tlie mission itself was shortly removed to Quebec. The fierce 
and powerful tribe of the Fries was also exterminated : no 
trace of them now remains save the name. 

After war and disease and famine had so wasted the Canada 
Indians, there appeared yet other antagonists, more subtle, 
but no less powerful. Brandy and the evil men who brought 
it, were the worst of enemies, as well to the Indians as to the 
missions. Previous to 1662 the Jesuits had forbidden the 
sale of brandy, but about that time the governor of Canada 
granted licenses, and though the remonstrances of the mis- 
sionaries prevailed for awhile to stop the traffic, yet the king's 
secretary "ave the permit, and thus the flood-gate of disaster 



17 16] THE JESUIT MISSIONS. ny 

was opened. The specious plea of the secretary against the 
prohibition was as follows : " This [prohibition] is doubtless 
a good principle, but one which is very ruinous to trade, be- 
cause the Indians, being passionately fond of these liquors, 
instead of coming to trade their peltries with us, go trade 
them among the Dutch, who supply them with brandy. This 
also is disadvantageous to religion ; for, having wherewith to 
gratify their appetites, they allow themselves to be catechized 
by the Dutch ministers, who instruct them in heresy." 

The Jesuits, much to their credit, still continued their en- 
deavors to stop the evil, and, in 1716, the priest Lafitau pre- 
sented a petition to the Canadian council urging the abolition 
of the brandy trade, in which he speaks of its woful effects 
upon the Indians, in these words: "When the people are 
intoxicated they become so furious that they break and 
destroy everything belonging to their households ; cry and 
howl terribly, and go in quest, like madmen, of their ene- 
mies, to poignard them ; their relatives and friends are not at 
those times safe from their rage. Several of their tribes have 
been almost wholly destroyed by brandy, particularly the 
Algonquin nation." In reply to this petition, the Canadian 
council reported that, "All agree as to the inconvenience of 
the trade in brandy, but at the same time it is necessary." 
First declaring it to be wrong, they then agreed that it could 
not be dispensed with. 

Says a recent secretary of the London Missionary Society : " I 
beg leave to add the desirableness of preventing, by every practi- 
cable means, the introduction of ardent spirits among the inhabi- 
tants of the countries we may visit or colonize. There is nothing 
more injurious to the South Sea Islanders than seamen who have 
absconded from ships, setting up huts for the retail of ardent 
spirits, which are the resort of the indolent and the vicious of the 
crews of the vessels, and in which, under the influence of intoxica- 
tion, scenes of immorality and even murder have been exhibited 
almost beyond what the natives witnessed among themselves while 
they were heathen." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW NETIIERLAND. 

1609 — 1664. 



THE TRADING-POST AT NEW AMSTERDAM. 

An English navigator named Henry Hudson, in the em- 
ploy of London merchants, had, like Frobisher, made several 
fruitless voyages in search of the north-west passage, as well 
as north-eastward by Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. With 
the expectation, as it appeared, of reaching India, directly 
across the north pole, he still continued his solicitations, but 
the scheme meeting with no fartlier encouragement in Eng- 
land, he applied to the Dutch. Tliat nation had but recently 
escaped from the domination of Spain, and its thrifty mer- 
chants were sending vessels in all directions, reaching out for 
a supremacy of maritime commerce. They were depriving 
the Portuguese of their rich possessions in India, while that 
great monopoly — the Dutch East India Company — had been 
formed, with branches in the principal cities of the Nether- 
lands. The Dutch had suddenly become the PhaMiicians of 
modern times. 

The application of Hudson having been made to the Am- 
sterdam branch of the great corporation, he was furnished 
with a vessel, the Half-Moon, and, in the year 1609, pro- 
ceeded to try again his fortune in the Arctic regions. Frus- 
trated in his design — as every explorer for the "pole" has 
been, even to the present day — Hudson directed his course 
iiS 



i6o9] THE TRADING-rOST AT NEW AMSTERDAM, ng 

along the shores of Acadie and New England to Chesapeake 
bay ; thence, proceeding again northward, entered that beau- 
tiful haven which Verrazzani had visited in 1524, and which 
became known a few years later as the Bay of New York. 
'I'he river, thence known as the Hudson, he ascended as far 
as the Catskills ; but the Indians, who were wonder-struck at 
sight of the vessels, he badly treated, and consequently they 
rejoiced when his vessels' sails were spread, and he and his 
crew departed down the river. 

"It is a striking coincidence that the Iroquois Indians were first 
unhappily made acquainted with their two greatest enemies, Rum 
and Gunpowder, by the rival discoverers, Hudson and Champlain, 
during the same week of the same year, 1609. While Henry 
Hudson was cautiously feeling his way, as he supposed, into the 
Northern Ocean, through the channel of the river which bears his 
name, Champlain was accompanying a war-party of the Hurons 
against the Iroquois, upon the lake receiving its name from him. 
Hudson discovered a company of the Iroquois upon the banks of 
the river, whom he regaled with rum. Champlain discovered a 
body of Iroquois warriors upon the coast of the lake, near the spot 
afterwards selected for the site of Ticonderoga, and there first 
taught them the fatal power oi giinpo'ivder.'^ (W. L. Stone.) 

The following year Hudson entered and explored the great 
bay north of Canada, rumors of which voyage had come to 
tlie ears of Champlain, who had hoped, with the assistance 
of the natives, to reach that body of water overland. In 
virtue of this discovery of Hudson's, while sailing under the 
Dutch flag, that nation claimed all the territory extending 
from the Delaware or South Bay to Cape Cod, and conferred 
upon it the name of New Netherland. 

Scarcely had the Dutch taken formal possession of their 
American dominion by erecting a fortified trading-house on 
Manhattan island, at the mouth of the river, than Argall 
aj^peared from Virginia and disputed their right to the soil. 
But nothing more serious ensued for the time, than the haul- 



I20 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1621 

ing down of their flag. An Amsterdam company having 
received from the States-General of Holland the exclusive 
privilege of trade for three years to New Netherland, several 
vessels were sent out in 1615, one of which under Captain 
May (or Mey) entered the Delaware bay. The northern 
caj^e at its entrance received the name of the captain, while 
the river itself was called the South river, in distinction from 
the Hudson, which was also known as the North river. 

Another of the vessels sailed by way of East river into 
Long Island sound, and discovered the Housatonic and also 
the Connecticut river — although the latter, for awhile, was 
known as the Fresh-water, in distinction from the Hudson, 
the waters of which were salt. The commander, whose name 
was Block, and whose explorations are commemorated in the 
name of the small island south-west of Newport, sailed as far 
as Cape Cod. 

There was also established, the same year (1615), a trading- 
post upon the river near the present site of Albany, but it was 
soon superseded by the erection of Fort Orange. Hither the 
Five Nations, and especially the Mohawk tribe, resorted, and 
received in trade those fire-arms which made them so formid- 
able to the French and the Indians of Canada. Around the 
mouth of the river were the Manhattans, a tribe of the great 
Algonquin race. They received in payment for the whole 
island of Manhattan the sum of sixty guilders, equivalent to 
twenty-four dollars; or about as much as would be charged an 
Indian chief at this day for staying less than a week at one of 
its palatial city hotels. 

The management of New Netherland affairs passed, in 
1621, into the hands of a new corporation, which had been 
formed under the title of the Dutch JVesi India Company. 
Their exclusive jurisdiction of trade and settlement embraced 
the whole Atlantic-American coasts, as well as the coast of 
Africa from the Tropic of Cancer down to the Cape of Good 



1629] THE DIRECTORS AND THE PATROONS. 121 

Hope. Like the East India Company, it was divided into 
several branches or chambers, located in five of the chief 
Dutch cities; while its affairs were managed by a board of 
directors, called the Assembly of Nineteen. Captain May 
was sent out with instructions to build two forts in the Neth- 
erland province ; one of them Fort Orange on the Hudson, 
mentioned above, and the other on the east side of the Dela- 
ware river near Red Bank, which was called Fort Nassau. 
Several years later another fort and trading-post for furs, called 
Beversreede, was built at the mouth of the Schuylkill, nearly 
opposite Nassau. 

THE DUTCH DIRECTORS AND THE PATROONS. 

Peter Minuits came out in 1625, as Director or Governor 
for the company. ^With him came the first regular colonists, 
for those who had preceded them were but traders who had 
not as yet decided to make their homes, though they might 
make their fortunes, in the New World. These colonists 
who were Walloons, from the French Netherland frontier, 
established themselves on the north-west corner of Long 
Island, around Wallabout bay. Staten Island was also pur- 
chased from the Indians. At the southern extremity of Man- 
hattan island (the Battery), Minuits caused to be erected a 
block-house, surrounded by a palisade of cedars, and called 
it Fort Amsterdam. The director, his council and the sheriff, 
constituted the local government on behalf of the company ; 
they could make and execute the laws, and likewise act as 
judges in matters of dispute. 

In 1629, the West India Company received the assent of 
the States-General to a scheme of colonization, which allowed 
them to confer the title of Patroon, with feudal privileges, 
upon such of their number as would, within four years, cause 
fifty grown persons to settle in New Netherland, upon any 

F II 



122 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1629 

tract of land granted to such patroon for that purpose. The 
size of the tract was limited to an extent of sixteen miles on 
the sea-shore or on a navigable river, the distance inland not 
being specially noted. The recipients of the land were to 
extinguish the Indian title to the same. The company re- 
served to themselves the island of Manhattan and the fur 
trade, while they required the patroons to pay them a per- 
centage upon all trade in which they engaged. The colonists 
were prohibited from making any woollen, linen or cotton 
cloth, or other woven stuff, on pain of banishment and of 
punishment as "perjurers," a sort of regulation very com- 
ixionly practised with colonial people to keep them dependent, 
by compelling the exportation of their native productions 
in exchange for all manufactured articles of the mother 
country. 

Estrada observes, tliat the Spanish government, in order to hold 
its American subjects in greater subjection to its own dominion, con- 
ceived that the best method for accompbshing that end was to pro- 
hibit their manufacturing any of the same articles that were made 
in Spain, or from growing on their soil any of her productions. 
Hence they were forbidden to rival the wine, oil, almond, silk, cloth, 
glass, etc., of the mother country, on which they became dependent 
for their supplies of these articles. Such also, as we shall see, was 
the policy of England toward her American colonies. 

In pursuance of these concessions, some of the leading 
members of the company proceeded to select for themselves 
the most inviting tracts in the territory. On both sides of 
the Delaware bay, above Capes May and Henlopen, lands 
were taken up, and called by the name of "Swansdale;" a 
director of the company, named Pauw, secured the Hoboken 
and Staten Island localities on New York harbor, calling 
that portion on the mainland "Pavonia;" while above and 
below Fort Orange (which itself was not ceded) lands were 
purchased, and subsequently added to, which formed the 



1633] MINUITS AND VAN TWILLER. 123 

large and important manor of "Rensselaerswick." Yet the 
privileges granted to the patroons became a source of no little 
trouble, for those proprietors aimed at the fur trade with the 
Indians, notwithstanding the company's prohibition. Thus, 
starting as traders, and not — as had been intended by the 
company — as settled colonists, their occupancy proved a 
decided hindrance to the progress of the province. Farmers 
indeed were sent out, who worked on shares of rent, and in- 
dentured servants were employed as in Virginia ; but conten- 
tions between the patroons and the tenants arose at the very- 
outset. 

In 1633 Walter Van Twiller succeeded Minuits as Direc- 
tor of the colony. Within a few months after his arrival from 
Holland, there arose serious disputes with the English, who 
were then rapidly occupying New England, and were about 
to encroach upon land which the Dutch claimed as their own. 
The most threatening complication was in regard to the pos- 
session of the Connecticut river. 

A tract of land at the river's mouth had been purchased 
from the Indians by the Dutch, and their national arms affixed 
to a tree ; while farther up the river a second tract, near the 
present city of Hartford, had been obtained from the Pequod 
tribe, and a fortified trading-post established, called the House 
of Good Hope. Shortly after, there arrived a bark at New 
Amsterdam from Boston, which, while it was the forerunner 
of the trade between the two cities, also brought despatches 
from Governor Winthrop, expostulating against the Dutch 
occupation of the Connecticut, which he claimed for certain 
lords and gentlemen, subjects of the king of England. Van 
Twiller, in reply, suggested referring the dispute to their re- 
spective governments ; but, meantime, the Plymouth colony, 
without the concurrence of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
erected a trading-house (Windsor) on the river, just above the 
House of Good Hope, and which the Dutch permitted to 



124 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [163 

remain. Emigrants from Massachusetts also settled near the 
Dutch fort or "House," and likewise at the mouth of the 
river, where a fort was erected on behalf of the English pro- 
prietors — so that it seemed as though the Dutch would 
presently be altogether excluded from the river. 

Meanwhile Van Twiller applied himself to the improvement 
of New Amsterdam. The fort was rebuilt, and barracks, 
mills and other buildings erected. A brewery and a number 
of other houses were built upon the farm or " bowery," num- 
ber one, which was the property of the West India Company. 
Yet the astute director, while managing for the company, did 
not altogether forego his own interests. From the Indians 
he obtained a grant of Governor's island in the harbor, and, 
together with several officials, purchased from the native 
owners, but without permission of the company, a fertile tract 
of land on Long Island, where arose the settlement of Flat- 
lands. Complaints of these and other matters having reached 
Holland, Van Twiller was recalled after he had continued five 
years in the office; and, in 163S, William Kieft was appointed 
to succeed him. 

NEW SWEDEN. 

The dispute with New England respecting the ownership of 
the Connecticut territory, was very soon followed by an alarm 
from a like cause, but in the opposite quarter. From Queen 
Christina, of Sweden — daughter of the celebrated Gustavus 
Adolphus — Peter Minuits, the former director of New Nether- 
land, obtained assistance to establish a Swedish trading-post 
and settlement in America. The desire of colonization in 
the New World had been strongly favored by Adolphus and 
by his prime minister, the chancellor Oxenstiern ; and it is 
worthy of remark that they contemplated a co\oT\y oi freemen, 
it being their belief that "slaves cost a great deal, labor with 
reluctance, and soon perish from hard usage. The Swedish 



1643] NEW SWEDEN. 125 

nation is laborious and intelligent, and surely we shall gain 
more by a free people with wives and children." 

Just at the time that Kieft entered upon his directorship 
(1638) Minuits and fifty men, in an armed vessel — the Key 
of Calmar — sailed to the head of Delaware bay, and on its 
west shore, near where Wilmington stands, purchased a 
tract of land from the Minquaas tribe, and erected thereon 
Fort Christina. This was the beginning of the little colony 
of New Sweden. 

The strong protestations of Kieft that the whole of the 
South or Delaware river and bay, belonged to the Dutch, were 
not heeded by Minuits, who, leaving the fort well-garri- 
soned and supplied with provisions, went back to Sweden. 
That country was then a warlike state, and the aggression was 
for the time, submitted to by the West India Company. Two 
or three years later, however, a fresh trouble appeared. The 
Connecticut people, also desiring to establish a trading settle- 
ment on the Delaware, fifty English families sailed from New 
Haven, touching first at New Amsterdam to notify Kieft of 
their intention. As their minds were fully made up to settle, 
they paid no regard to the director's protest, but continued 
on to the Delaware, and located on Salem creek and on the 
Schuylkill. This intrusion raised the ire of the Swedes as 
well as of the Dutch, whereupon the forces of both uniting, 
the new settlers were obliged to declare allegiance to Sweden, 
while the Dutch exacted from the English leader full pay- 
ment of duties upon the furs for which he had traded. 

In 1643 came John Printz, deputed by Queen Christina to 
be her governor of New Sweden. Upon Tinicum island, 
below the mouth of the Schuylkill, where the Lazaretto build- 
ings now stand, the governor erected a fort of hemlock logs, 
and also a " palace" for himself, called Printz Hall, which was 
subsequently surrounded by a fine orchard and pleasure 
grounds. The queen's instructions to the governor, were to 

n* 



126 HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. [1643 

administer the laws of Sweden, and, so far as practicable, its 
manners and customs; to promote diligently all profitable 
branches of industry, such as the culture of grain, tobacco, the 
vine, and the mulberry for silk; the raising of cattle; to search 
for precious metals; to cultivate a traffic with the Indians, and 
esi^ecially to be careful to undersell the English and Dutch. 
The Lutheran religion was enjoined to be observed. The good 
w'ill of the Dutch and the Indians was to be conciliated, the 
purchases of land from the latter to be confirmed, and they 
to be instructed in a civilized and Christian life. 

Under these wholesome instructions, the colony prospered, 
the treaty of peace with the Indians was observed, and the 
settlers were consequently not molested. Fort Nassau, oppo- 
site Tinicum, the chief station of the Dutch on the Delaware, 
being poorly supplied with goods, the larger share of trade 
fell into the hands of the Swedes, who shortly constructed a 
fort lower down the river, at the mouth of Salem creek, which 
they called Fort Elsenberg. 

WILLIAM KIEFT; WARS WITH THE INDIANS. 

The new director had not found either the property or the 
prospects of the company by any means in an encouraging 
state ; their fine boweries or farms on Manhattan island being 
untenanted or neglected, and the fur trade very much en- 
grossed by unprincipled traders. It was clearly necessary for 
the West India Company, if they wished the colony to grow 
in size like the neighboring province of New England, to 
offer more liberal inducements to actual settlers. 

They prudently got rid of two of the three largest patroon- 
ships, those of Swansdale and Pavonia, and, for the future, 
limited the size of such estates to four miles of river frontage. 
The company offered to provide houses, lands, cattle and tools 
to immigrants, upon receipt of an annual rent, and to transport 



1 64 1 ] S£ TTL EMENT OF BK OKL YN. 1 2 7 

them to the colony free of cost. The prohibition against 
making woven goods was repealed, while in place of the In- 
dian-trade monopoly, a duty was laid on articles exported. 
The Dutch Reformed church was declared to be the established 
religion. 

It would have been desirable had the large manor of Rensselaers- 
wick also been purchased, as Swansdale and Pavonia had been. 
Its patroon caused a fort to be built on a precipitous islet in the 
Hudson, near the southern boundary of his grant, and obliged all 
vessels going up to Fort Orange to lower their colors and to pay 
toll to the watch-master. He in fact aspired to be independent of 
the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam, to have control of his own trade, 
and would grant no land to settlers unless they renounced any right 
of appeal to the company's government. 

The new regulations for the colony resulted in a steady 
increase of population; some from Holland, some from Vir- 
ginia, who came to cultivate tobacco (in high demand by 
the Dutch), and others from New England, driven there- 
from by the religious intolerance of the Puritans. On 
Long Island, all of the western portion of which had been 
purchased of the Indians, the new settlement of Breukelen or 
Brooklyn, in addition to Wallabout and Flatlands, was com- 
menced. But the eastern portion of the island, which was 
claimed as the property of Lord Stirling, was taken up by 
English settlers, who placed themselves under the jurisdiction 
of Connecticut. 

On the Connecticut river, the House of Good Hope was 
soon surrounded by the English settlers at Hartford, who 
confined the Dutch traders to a plot of thirty acres. Besides 
that, though the Dutch, by purchasing of the Indians the land 
along the sound, had hoped to stop the encroachments of the 
English, the settlements of the latter rapidly multiplied west- 
ward, to and beyond the Housatonic. The hamlet of New 
Haven or Red Hill w^as growing apace, and at Fairfield, 



128 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1643 

Stamford and Greenwich, the first houses of those harbor- 
towns began to be erected. 

Although thirty years had elapsed since the founding of the 
colony, as yet no serious difficulty had occurred with the In- 
dians. Fire-arms were not allowed to be sold to the tribes 
around New Amsterdam, notwithstanding the Mohawks had 
obtained them freely from the colonists about Fort Orange, 
as already stated. The circumstances which led to a disturb- 
ance of the peace were of a trifling sort to have proved the 
occasion of shedding blood. 

The Raritan tribe, on the west side of the Hudson, were 
accused of trying to rob a Dutch vessel, and were likewise 
suspected of stealing swine from Staten Island. This suspi- 
cion appears to have been unconfirmed ; yet on these slight 
grounds an expedition was sent against them (1641), and 
several of their warriors brutally shot. The Raritans retali- 
ated by burning some buildings on Staten Island, and by kill- 
ing several servants belonging on one of the boweries. For 
this, a price was set upon their heads, and Director Kieft per- 
suaded some neighboring tribes to assist him in the work of 
chastisement. 

Two years later, in 1643, another difficulty, much more 
sanguinary in its results, arose with the Hackensacks, who 
also dwelt on the west side of the river. One of this tribe 
having been made drunk, and then robbed by some colonists, 
in revenge killed two of the Dutch. The chiefs remonstrated 
against the sale of brandy to their people, but nevertheless 
offered to make reparation. Kieft, however, who would listen 
to no apology, was only to be satisfied with blood. In the 
meantime the Hackensacks were joined by another tribe about 
Tappan, who had also incurred the enmity of the Dutch, by 
retaliating the murder of a warrior. Against these offenders 
two companies were sent out, one of them being commanded 
by a colonist named Adriaensen, who had been a freebooter 



1643] KI EFT'S INDIAN WARS. 129 

in the West Indies. The Indians, surprised in the night, 
offered but little resistance to their assailants ; and warriors, 
women and children were slain without mercy. Their 
shrieks, borne by the wintry wind across the frozen waters^ 
were distinctly heard on the Manhattan shore.' The wounded 
who remained next morning, were either slain or thrown into 
the icy river. 

The history of the Dutch occupation of the East Indies, is a sor- 
rowful record of baseness, duplicity and destruction of life. An 
awful transaction (mentioned by Sir Stamford Raffles) was the 
drowning of a ship-load of Chinese traders of Java, who, having 
yielded to the Dutch, were given a promise to be eafely conveyed 
from the country; but, when out at sea, they were every one thrown 
overboard. The rich cargoes of pearls and perfumes, of spices and 
other delectable luxuries which India then contributed to the West, 
were only purchased at a fearful price. 

The animosity against the natives next extended to Long 
Island, where some settlers plundered the corn of the neigh- 
boring Indians and slew two of their warriors. Apprehending 
a war of extermination, and roused to fury by the ferocity of 
their punishment, several small tribes of the Indians banded 
together, and began a series of reprisals against th.e colonists 
near to New Amsterdam, burning, slaying, and taking pris- 
oners. All who could escape fled to the town, where pres- 
ently a fast was proclaimed and measures concerted to attack 
the Indians. The adventurer, Adriaensen, was sent out with 
a company, but the expedition was unsuccessful. He beheld 
his own bowery ruined, and he himself was sent a prisoner to 
Holland for making a passionate attack, with pistol and cut- 
lass, upon the person of Director Kieft. 

The tribes were willing to listen to terms of pacification, 
but, unhappily, a fresh hindrance arose, caused by the attack 
of some up-river Indians upon a trading canoe from Fort 
Orange. Hostilities were thereupon at once renewed, and 



130 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1645 

expeditions sent to both sides of the Hudson and to Long 
Island. Especially active as a leader in these bloody enter- 
prises, was Captain Underhill, who had been one of the so- 
called "heroes" of the Pequod war in New England, an 
account of which will be given in the succeeding chapter. In 
an attack against the Long Island Indians, one hundred of 
the natives were slain, while two of the survivors, who, as 
prisoners, had been taken to New Amsterdam, were hacked 
to pieces with knives. On a moonlight night in midwinter, 
an attack was made upon an Indian village on the Connecti- 
cut frontier, many of the natives being assembled to celebrate 
a festival. At the onset, a large number of the Indians were 
slain, their viltage was then set on fire, and a horrible mas- 
sacre ensued. It was reported that 500 fell in the carnage 
and by the flames. 

The Mohawks had not been engaged in the contest, which 
had been carried on by tribes south of their territory. It was 
at this time that the missionary Jogues, a prisoner of the Mo- 
hawks, came down to Fort Orange with some of that band, 
and escaped out of their hands. In the same summer of 1645, 
Kieft, having paid a visit to the fort, and effected a treaty 
with the Mohawks, the latter by their influence persuaded the 
hostile tribes to agree to a definitive peace. It was stipulated 
that, in future, if difficulties should arise, conciliation should 
be first resorted to ; and furthermore, that when the Indians 
approached Manhattan, or, on the other hand, when the 
Dutch went to the Indian villages, their fire-arms should not 
be carried with them. 

The colonists had paid dearly for their foolishness in per- 
mitting this war. Only five or six out of the thirty boweries 
remained in a tenantable condition, and the prospects of the 
province had been seriously damaged. Consequently, the 
people now clamored for the removal of the unpopular magis- 
trate, against whom they made the further grave charge of 



i647] PETER STUYVESANT. 131 

denying their right of appeal from his decisions to the authori- 
ties in Holland, just as the patroon Van Rensselaer had denied 
a similar right to the settlers on his land. A merchant in 
New Amsterdam had been not only fined, but placed in jail 
for his presumption in claiming to appeal ; while an Anabap- 
tist minister on Long Island had, for a like offence, been 
similarly maltreated. These loud complaints resulted in the 
recall of Kieft in the year 1647, after he had been the com- 
pany's director for nine years. Kieft sailed for home in a 
vessel richly laden with furs, but it was cast ashore on the 
coast of Wales, and he and eighty others perished. 



PETER STUYVESANT; NEW NETHERLAND RESIGNED TO THE 
ENGLISH. 

When Peter Stuyvesant, who had been governor of several 
small islands in the Caribbean sea belonging to Holland, be- 
came director of New Netherland (1647), that province, even 
including the Delaware settlement of the Swedes, contained 
less than 3000 settlers; while the English colonies of New 
England on the north-east, numbered nearly 20,000, and Vir- 
ginia and Maryland together, on the south, were equally 
populous. On Long Island, the English were encroaching 
toward the western end, and in the New Haven territory, tlie 
movement in the same direction still continued. 

Stuyvesant having been particularly charged to adjust the 
controversy with the United Colonies of New England, pro- 
ceeded to the House of Good Hope, where it was agreed 
that the boundary matter and the disputes arising from the 
question of jurisdiction, should be referred to four English 
arbitrators, two of them to be chosen by Stuyvesant. In 
accordance with this sensible arrangement, the eastern two- 
thirds part of Long Island (the present county of Suffolk) was 
awarded to the English 3 the Dutch were to retain their trading- 



132 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1655 

post on the Connecticut ; but the line of boundary between 
the Dutch and English possessions, which it was agreed should 
run northward from Greenwich bay, was nowhere to approach 
within ten miles of the Hudson river. 

Some of the New Haven people, unduly elated at the 
favorable issue of the negotiations, sailed for Delaware bay, 
with the intention of planting a colony there ; but having 
stopped on the way at Manhattan, Stuyvesant seized the 
vessel, and, while preventing their undertaking being carried 
out, he himself caused a fort to be erected (1651) at the same 
place which they had designed for their colony. It was on 
the site of the present town of New Castle, five miles below 
the Swedish fort Christina, and was called Fort Casimir. 

Printz, in the meantime, had been succeeded as governor 
of New Sweden, by Risingh, who managed by an artifice to 
make himself master of the new Dutch fort. Whereupon 
Stuyvesant, in 1655, sent a strong force to the Delaware, 
which not only reclaimed Fort Casimir, but took possession 
of Fort Christina and the rest of the military posts of New 
Sweden. The West India Company soon afterward sold the 
west bank of the Delaware, from Cape Henlopen to the falls 
at Trenton, to the city of Amsterdam, though Lord Baltimore 
laid claim to it as part of his province of Maryland. 

The tobacco exported from Virginia was at that time mostly 
carried in Dutch vessels, while, as already related, negro slaves 
found their unwilling way into the Old Dominion by the same 
channel. Some of these Africans were also conveyed to New 
Netherland by vessels of the West India Company — that 
corporation being a large dealer in slaves. Many of these 
creatures, unfortunate captives from the Guinea coast, were 
brought to Manhattan while Stuyvesant was governor, he 
being directed to use diligence in attending to the public 
sale of these living consignments. Although the slaves were 
permitted to work out their freedom, yet the children of 



1663] PETER STUYVESANT. 133 

such did not partake of the purchased emancipation of 
the parents. It has been truthfully observed that the fact 
" that New York is (was) not a slave state like Carolina, is 
due to the climate, and not to the superior humanity of its 
founders," 

The predominating trait in the character of Stuyvesant was 
pertinacity. An opinionated man is very apt to be a perse- 
cutor, and such the director would doubtless have proved ; 
but, fortunately for the province, his intolerance was held in 
check by explicit orders from the company that individual 
rights of conscience should be respected. New Amsterdam 
■was receiving many accessions from New England ] refugee 
Friends, Anabaptists, and others, to whom the consciences 
of the Puritan magistrates were so much opposed, that they 
could not endure the "schismatics" in their sight. 

In 1663 threatening complications again arose with New 
England. The province of Connecticut had, the preceding 
year, received a royal charter annexing the New Haven terri- 
tory to its jurisdiction ; whereupon claims were advanced on 
behalf of the English, that the Hudson river should thence- 
forth be the western boundary line, and that all Long Island 
should be given up to them. Stuyvesant, who in a former 
emergency had refused to call together a popular assembly, 
was now willing to listen to the voice of the deputies from 
the settlements. Their decision was, that an appeal should 
be made to the company and to the home government for 
protection. But measures were already being taken in Eng- 
land to secure possession of the Dutch province. 

It has been mentioned that Long Island was claimed as the 
property of Lord Stirling. This and other claims to adjacent 
country, including New Netherland, having been purchased 
by the Duke of York, the brother of King Charles II., his 
title was duly confirmed, and the territory received the name 
of New York. Three ships, carrying 600 men, were at once 

12 



134 IITSTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1664 

despatched to take possession of New Netherland on behalf 
of the duke. The commissioners appointed were Sir Robert 
Carr, Colonel Robert Nichols, and Sir (George Cartwright. 
Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, joined the expedition. 
Although, upon its arrival before New Amsterdam, the per- 
tinacious governor was unwilling to give up the place without 
any show of resistance, the prudent counsels of the burgomas- 
ters and the mediation of Winthrop, resulted in an equable 
capitulation, by which the personal rights of the citizens were 
amply guaranteed. 

After the surrender, while Nichols remained in the town, 
Carr, another of the commissioners, proceeded in one of the 
ships to take possession of the Delaware settlements, while 
Cartwright sailed up the Hudson to apprise the settlers of 
Rensselaerswick of the change of masters, and to raise the 
English flag on Fort Orange. The village near the fort was 
thereafter called Albany, that being one of the titles of the 
Duke of York. It was in 1664 that New Netherland was 
thus speedily brought untlor English control. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 
1614— 1660. 



THE PURITAN PILGRIMS: NEW PLYMOUTH. 

In the same year that Jamestown was founded by the Vir- 
ginia Company, the Plymouth, or North Virginia Company, 
sent out a colony to make a settlement within their own grant 
of territory. They landed near the mouth of the Sagadahoc 
or Kennebec ; but the winter having proved very severe, and 
the colonists becoming discouraged, they all re-embarked the 
following year for England. In 1614, Captain John Smith 
was sent out by some London merchants, and besides making 
a map of the coast, brought back a profitable cargo to his 
employers. He presented the map to Prince Charles ; and 
the name of the territory, which he had changed from North 
Virginia to New England, was confirmed by the prince. 

After two years' delay, and much opposition, a charter was 
finally obtained from King James. This ''Great Patent," as 
it was called, was granted in 1620 to forty individuals of 
wealth and high rank, styled " The Council established at 
Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, 
ordering and governing of New England, in America." It 
conferred upon them the exclusive rights of government and 
of trade in all that part of the American territory comprised 
between the 40th and 48th parallels of north latitude, and 
extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean : including, 

135 



136 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1620 

therefore, the present Canada, New England and most part 
of the Middle States, besides the great belt of unexplored 
region west of the same. But, late in the same year that the 
charter was obtained, and before the Council of Plymouth 
had yet equipped an expedition, a company of pilgrims, 
seeking for homes, had landed and established themselves on 
the shores of the province. 

This company was part of a body of Puritans, who, on ac- 
count of their non-conformity with the religious views and 
outward services of the Established Church of England, and 
in order to escape the persecution incurred by this dissent, 
had fled to Holland, and, in the city of Leyden, formed a 
congregation of their own. John Robinson, a leading man 
and excellent minister among them, is regarded as the founder 
of the denomination of Independents or Congregationalists. 
Finding that the manners and practices of the Dutch were 
quite at variance with their own, and that there was danger 
of the church suffering moral loss thereby, they had made ap- 
plication to the Virginia Company for permission to seek an 
asylum in its dominions. Their wish was readily granted, and 
to the number of 102 persons — men, women and children — 
they set sail from Plymouth, in the ship Mayflower, for the 
mouth of the Hudson river; but they had a long and boisterous 
voyage, and being carried to the northward of their reckoning, 
they found themselves, when land was discovered, opposite to 
Cape Cod. 

When it became thus apparent that they were outside the 
limits of the Virginia Company's territory, they made a 
solemn .voluntary agreement, before landing, to enter into a 
compact of government, to frame just and equal laws, and 
mutually to submit to obey the same. They also chose John 
Carver to be their governor for one year. A boat's comi)any 
was then sent out to explore for a safe harbor. At one place 
where they landed, a few Indians discharged arrows at them 



1 620] NE IV PL YAW UTH. 137 

from a distance; their distrust being due to the fact that 
several years before, over twenty of their companions had 
been kidnapped by a ship's crew (Captain Hunt's) and car- 
ried off to be sold as slaves. 

Having cruised around Cape Cod bay, the explorers found 
on its west side a harbor which pleased them ; and here the 
Pilgrims landed the 2 2d of the 12th month (December), 1620. 
" Welcome, Englishmen," were the first words which greeted 
the settlers, from the lips of a native. It was the sagamore 
Samoset, who came to them alone, with assurances of friend- 
ship. Here, too, lived Tasquantum or Squanto, one of those 
who had been carried away by Hunt. His name often occurs 
in the early annals of the colony. The town which the Puri- 
tans began to build was called New Plymouth, after the 
English city whence they had sailed. 

Unlike most of the colonists who had previously essayed to 
settle in the New World, tliese Puritans were a unit in their 
purpose to establish homes ; and it was the easier to effect this 
object, seeing that they were not swayed by the mere avarice 
or caprice of the gold-hunters and fur-traders, but were honest 
and frugal tillers of the soil, and were generally concerned to 
observe the Divine requirements according as they understood 
them. It was this affinity of moral purpose which supported 
them in the midst of the severe sufferings of the first winter — 
the extreme cold and prevalent sickness, the lack of sufficient 
food and of comfortable habitations. In three months about 
one-half of their number died, among whom was Carver, the 
governor. William Bradford was appointed to succeed 
him. 

Fortunately, the friendship of the Indians was early secured. 
A fatal distemper had recently prevailed among the tribes 
along the New England coast, by which great numbers of 
them had perished, leaving the survivors in a very impover- 
ished condition. A treaty was entered into with Massasoit, 

12* 



138 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1620 

chief of the Wampanoags (their neighbors on the west) which 
was strictly observed for nearly forty years; yet this is not to 
be wondered at, as it was a mutually protective alliance, by 
which the colonists were to receive assistance, if attacked, 
and, on the other hand, to render it, if the Wampanoags were 
assailed unjustly. The Puritans appointed Miles Standish 
to be captain of the militia. 

In the third year after the landing, Standish went in pursuit 
of some Indians who had manifested hostile intentions, to 
which they had been provoked by the ill-behavior of some 
colonists, not Puritans. A number of the Indians were killed ; 
which, being reported to the tender-spirited Robinson, who 
yet remained in Holland, he wrote to the colonists — "Oh, 
how happy a thing it would have been, that you had converted 
some before you killed any." This rigorous proceeding on the 
part of the colonists filled the neighboring Indians with such 
terror, that many left their habitations and hid in sw^amps and 
unhealthy places, neglecting their planting, so that numbers 
perished of want and disease. One of these unfortunates 
was the sachem Aspinet. Nor did they recover from the 
effects of this blow for a period of fifty years, at the end 
of which time began the war with the Wampanoags, called 
"King Philip's War." 

A historian says of Standish, that he was "a man of the greatest 
courage, the devoted friend of the church, which lie never joined." 
Yet at the beginning of the encounter above spoken of, being in a 
cabin with some warriors, and merely suspecting them of treachery, 
he snatched a knife from one of them, and stabbed him with it to 
the heart. 

At another time, Standish's company was despatched for a quan- 
tity of corn which some of the settlers had purchased of the In- 
dians, but which, on account of a violent storm, they had been 
unable to bring with them. They had left it, covered with mats 
and sedge, in charge of the sachem Aspinet. The Indians faith- 
fully attended to the trust, and delivered the corn to Standish when 
he came ; but the latter, having missed a few beads and some other 



1630] MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY. 139 

trifles from a boat which had been left unguarded, threatened the 
natives that if they were not returned "he would revenge it on 
them before his departure." Aspinet recovered the trinkets, and 
returned them to the Enghsh commander. 

At the beginning of the second winter, a vessel arrived 
from England with additional Puritans, and a charter from 
the Council of Plymouth. The document they were of course 
glad to obtain as legalizing their undertaking, yet for the 
present they would have much preferred that the vessel had 
brought them a cargo of food, as they were now obliged to 
subsist for several months on half allowance. Winslow, one 
of the leading colonists, was sent to Monhegan island, a fish- 
ing station near the mouth of the Kennebec, and from thence 
obtained the necessary relief. Four or five years elapsed be- 
fore they had broken up and cultivated sufificient land to 
overcome the demand for food; but the soil in the vicinity 
was not fertile, and the population consequently increased 
but slowly. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY. 

In 1628 a new colony, with a separate charter, arose on the 
north of the New Plymouth tract, and in size soon overshad- 
owed the original settlement. It was known as the " Planta- 
tion of Massachusetts Bay." The first body of colonists 
under this grant, were led by John Endicott, and they set- 
tled at Naumkeag, now Salein, where there were already a 
few families. 

Although Endicott was appointed governor, and was to be 
assisted in the execution of the laws by twelve counsellors, 
the company in. England had also a governor, a deputy, and 
assistants, and monthly courts were held for the management 
of its affairs. Two years later they appointed John Win- 
THROP governor, an honor to which he was frequently re- 
elected. In the same year (1630) seventeen vessels conveyed 



I40 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1635 

to the settlement about a thousand emigrants, besides horses, 
cattle, and various supplies, and the requisite implements for 
fishing, cultivating the soil, and ship-building. 

Winthrop fixed upon the little peninsula at the head of 
Massachusetts bay, for the seat of government. There was a 
hill upon it, having three distinct eminences, and hence the 
])eninsula was called Tri-mountain ; but it soon received the 
name of Boston, after the English town whence some of the 
])rincipal emigrants came. Charlestown, Boston's northern 
suburb, had been settled the year before. Roxbury, on the 
south; Cambridge, on the west; Lynn, Watertown, Maiden, 
etc., were among the places immediately founded. ' A general 
court, the first in America, was held in the autumn of this 
year. It was decided, after over 100 freemen had been ap- 
pointed, that these should have the power to choose the 
assistants or magistrates, whilst tlie magistrates should elect 
the governor and deputy-governor out of their own body; 
but it was afterward agreed that deputies chosen by the towns 
should also convene with the magistrates. It was early the 
desire of the people to have home rule. Peace prevailed with 
the Indians: the Mohegans, Pequods, and Narragansetts, all 
solicited their powerful alliance. 

Under the judicious administration of Winthrop, the 
colony prospered and new settlers constantly arrived from 
England, where there prevailed a general apprehension of 
civil and religious trouble. A body of these colonists, in the 
autumn of 1635, began the settlement of Concord. They 
encountered many privations ; their cattle sickened, the 
wolves devoured their swine and sheep, their poorly-con- 
structed huts were not proof against jain and the cold ; yet 
the pioneers were of a devout and patient spirit, and, though 
esteeming themselves amongst the poorest of God's creatures, 
they maintained a cheerful state of mind, and a resolution 
" to excel in holiness." 



l62i] NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE. 141 

In the following year (1636), the young and talented 
Henry Vane arrived in the colony, and at once the electors, 
pleased that a man of such note should make his home among 
them, chose him for governor. But the short administration 
of Vane was marked by very serious troubJes, — a war with the 
Pequods, and a sharp religious controversy. The Indian war 
will be mentioned hereafter in connection with the Connecti- 
cut and Rhode Island settlements. 

The controversy referred to, arose out of what was called 
the " Antinomian heresy," of which Anne Hutchinson was 
the chief promulgator. She controverted the austerity of the 
Puritans, as partaking of unnecessary ''good works," and in- 
sisted on the sufficiency of justification by faith alone, as 
revealed by the indwelling spirit. As Vane supported these 
views, at the election in 1637 he was superseded by Winthrop, 
and soon thereafter returned to England, to become a leader 
of the Independents. Anne Hutchinson, having been ban- 
ished from the colony, went first to Rhode Island, and then 
to New Netherland ; but in the Indian war brought on by 
Kieft's misgovernment, she, her son-in-law, and all (except 
one) of their family, to the number of eighteen persons, per- 
ished at the hands of the incensed red men. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE. 

Probably the most active and zealous member of the origi- 
nal Plymouth Company, and of its successor, the Council of 
Plymouth, in England, and one whose interest in American 
affairs continued unabated for a space of forty years, was Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges. Another member of the Council, and 
for awhile its secretary, was John Mason, who, within a few 
months after the Great Patent was obtained from the king 
(1621), received from the Council a grant of that part of their 
territory contained between the Salem river and the head- 



142 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1636 

waters of the Merrimac; while Mason and Gorges together, 
were allowed a second patent for the adjacent tract to the 
east, comprised between the Merrimac and the Kennebec. 

The two proprietors named, had great anticipations as to 
the success of their projected colony, and in 1623, the settle- 
ments of Dover and Portsmouth on the Piscataqua river, were 
founded by colonists whom they sent out. But the benefit 
of their liberal expenditures was reaped by others at a later 
day. When, in 1628, the grant to the Massachusetts Bay Com- 
pany was made by the Council, the territory which was then 
conveyed, overlapped that to Mason, who therefore asked for 
a new patent to that part of the land between the Merrimac 
and Piscataqua, or New Hampshire, relinquishing the Salem 
river for awhile as his southern boundary. The title to this 
latter doubly-claimed section, became the occasion of many 
disputes at law between the heirs of Mason and the colony of 
Massachusetts Bay, although it does not appear that the primal 
right of the natives was taken into consideration. Very slow 
was the growth of the New Hampshire settlements ; and in 
1653, thirty years after Portsmouth was founded, it could 
boast of containing no more than fifty or sixty families. The 
settlements were annexed to Massachusetts in 1641. 

As Mason had taken west of the Piscataqua for his share of 
territory, Gorges took that east of the same to the Kennebec 
river. The eastern section, being part of the subsequent state 
of Maine, was at first called New Somerset. The region from 
the Kennebec east to the St. Croix was given at a later date 
to the Earl of Stirling. Monhegan island, near the mouth of 
the Kennebec, and a settlement at Pemaquid point, were at 
that time the only stations on the Maine coast. After these, 
Saco was settled, and a court held there in_ 1636 ; then York, 
which was first called Georgeana, in honor of the proprietary. 
Upon the death of Gorges, the few inhabitants of the province 
were left to take care of themselves. The Massachusetts Bay 



1631] ROGER WILLIAMS. 143 

colony offered its protection, and at the same time claimed 
the territory as being really theirs under the Great Charter, 
Godfrey, the governor of Maine, an Episcopalian — as were 
also most of the settlers — strongly remonstrated against the 
annexation ; but it was accomplished in 1653, the towns very 
reluctantly giving in their adhesion. 

There was another important patent granted by the Council 
of Plymouth, at the request of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, that 
persistent colonizer and solicitor for American territory. It 
was obtained the same year (162 1) that he became possessor 
of the "Maine" grant, but it was made out in the name of 
Sir William Alexander, a Scotchman. It comprised all of the 
region east of the St. Croix and south of the St. Lawrence, in- 
cluding Acadie and part of Canada, — all of it, as we have seen, 
claimed by the French, but now given away by the name of Nova 
Scotia, or New Scotland. By this procedure, it was designed 
to induce the Scotch to settle therein, and thus, while acting 
as an opposer of French Catholic colonization, to serve as a pro- 
tecting bulwark to the regular English settlements in the rear. 

This was an unjust and unfortunate gift of property, which 
belonged neither to the Council nor to King James to dispose 
of, and it proved, as might have been expected, a fertile sub- 
ject of contention. Mention has been made in the ninth 
chapter, how, in 162S, the settlements in Acadie and Canada 
came into possession of the English in a time of war, and 
how they were shortly given back again into the hands of the 
French. Had the line of separation between Maine and 
Acadie been clearly defined upon that occasion, a great deal 
of the subsequent hostility would have been avoided. 

ROGER WILLIAMS— THE FOUNDER OF RHODE ISLAND. 

In 1 63 1 there arrived at Boston a fugitive from English 
persecution, named Roger Williams. He was a separatist 



144 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1636 

from the established Episcopal church, and yet his conscien- 
tious convictions were esteemed heresy in Puritan New Eng- 
land. For, while he believed that the civil magistrate should 
restrain and punish outward crime, so he held that, as the 
conscience must never be coerced, the magistrate grievously 
erred when he attempted to set bounds to the soul's inward 
freedom. In accordance with this earnest belief in the sanctity 
of the conscience, he was opposed to the exaction of tithes 
for the support of a special religion, as well as to any fine or 
punishment by men for non-conformity or non-attendance on 
public worship. Now, the Puritans were strenuous on these 
points, and their observance was especially provided for in 
the colonial law; hence the separatist soon found that his life 
in the colony was not likely to be one of outward tranquillity. 

For over two years, Roger Williams was a minister of the 
congregations in Plymouth and Salem — principally in the 
latter place — where he became greatly endeared to the people. 
But his views of the inherent right of intellectual liberty, and 
of the separation of church and state in every particular, 
finally resulted in a sentence of banishment by the general 
court. Rather than renounce opinions which had taken such 
hold of his mind that he doubted not their agreement with 
the Truth, he declared himself "ready to be bound and 
banished and even to die in New England." 

In midwinter, the early part of 1636, Williams departed 
from Salem, and turning his steps southward toward the 
wilderness, wandered for fourteen weeks alone, in storms and 
the bitter cold, often sorely pressed for food and for a shelter 
at night. But the Indians, by whom he was known and grate- 
fully remembered as their former friend, received him gladly; 
and in the cabins of Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, 
and of the Narragansett, Canonicus, he found that brotherly 
treatment which had been denied him by his own country- 
men. Massasoit granted him some land, at Seekonk, for a 



1638] RHODE ISLAND. 1 45 

settlement, but finding that it was within the jurisdiction of 
Plymouth, and hence might involve him in future trouble, he 
crossed the Pawtucket river, and at the head of Narragansett 
bay, founded Providence, which he thus named in commemo- 
ration of "God's merciful providence to him in his distress." 
From Canonicus and his nephew Miantonomah, of the Nar- 
ragansetts, he obtained a clear title to the land. 

The great trust which Williams felt had been confided to 
him by the Ruler of all things, was wisely administered. The 
liberality with which he granted the land to the needy, with 
no thought of personal aggrandizement, or emolument for 
himself, was singularly unselfish. With respect to the govern- 
ment of the little state, he conferred the authority more com- 
pletely upon the people themselves than had yet been realized 
in any other colony. Harshly as he had been treated by some 
of the Puritans, and severe as had been the winter's experi- 
ence which resulted from the sentence of exile, yet he bore 
no resentment to his persecutors, to whom, as we shall pres- 
ently see, he was enabled to render efficient service. 

Two years after the arrival of Williams (1638), a number 
of the Antinomian friends of Anne Hutchinson, having de- 
parted from Massachusetts with the design of forming a sepa- 
rate colony of their own, were welcomed to the new settlement 
on Narragansett bay. The little flock of emigrants was led 
by John Clarke and William Coddington; the latter a 
merchant from Boston, in Lincolnshire, and an associate of the 
Plymouth Company. Upon the recommendation of Williams, 
they purchased from the Narragansetts the island of Aquiday, 
afterwards called the Isle of Rhodes, but shortly altered to 
Rhode Island. The price paid for the land was forty 
fathoms of white wampum ; and as an additional consideration 
for the Indians to remove and leave the whites the sole occu- 
pants, they were presented with twenty hoes and ten coats. 
The colonists bound themselves that in civil affairs only, was 



146 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1635 

the majority to rule : in matters of doctrine, while they pro- 
fessed obedience to the "perfect laws of our Lord Jesus 
Christ," yet their consciences must be left untrammelled by 
the State. They set love and benevolence before them as 
their rule. 



THE CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN SETTLEMENTS. 

In the account of the province of New Netherland, we have 
learnt how the Dutch, who claimed the country north of Long 
Island Sound, had established a fortified trading-post on the 
Connecticut, which they called the House of Good Hope. 
But this territory was likewise claimed by the great council 
for New England, who made a grant of it, first to the Earl of 
Warwick, and from that proprietary it had passed into various 
other hands. Without any permit from these new proprie- 
taries, the colony of Plymouth had, in 1633, established the 
trading-post of Windsor on the river just above the Dutch 
post, and in point of time only a few months later. 

In 1635 came John Winthrop, eldest son of the governor 
of the Massachusetts Bay colony, with a commission from the 
proprietaries to build a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut. 
This was done, and the place called Saybrook. In the autumn 
a second company of sixty pilgrims, among whom were a 
number of women and children, set out from the Massa- 
chusetts settlements on their forest journey to the Connecticut, 
driving their cattle before them. They had scarcely arrived 
at the banks of the river, when the winter set in, early and 
severe. Many of the cattle perished ; supplies of provisions 
which were to have been sent around by water, could not 
reach them because of the closing of the river by ice; and 
there being but poor shelter as yet provided, all except a few 
either returned through the bleak woods, or else made their 
way down to Saybrook. 



1638] CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN. 147 

In the summer of the ensuing year (1636) a more auspicious 
emigration followed, led by Hooker and Stone, ministers of 
the gospel, and by John Haynes, reputed a "gentleman of 
great estate." Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor were now 
regularly established as settlements, while a fourth party lo- 
cated farther up the river, at Springfield. But the dawning 
prosperity of the infant colony of Connecticut was very soon 
interrupted by an Indian war. Before treating of the same, 
mention should be made here of the founding of the adjoining 
colony of New Haven. 

There arrived in Boston at this time, when the Hutchinson 
controversy was at its height, a company of merchants from 
England, led by Theophilus Eaton, and with them a non- 
conformist minister named John Davenport. The agitation 
which prevailed in the province about religious matters, made 
these well-to-do emigrants quite unwilling to fix their habita- 
tions in those parts; hence Eaton, having been sent in advance 
to select a suitable place for a settlement, chose the locality at 
the head of Quinnipiack bay on Long Island Sound. A tract 
of ten miles by thirteen was purchased of the Indians, at the 
price of ten coats; and here the plan of a city on a liberal 
scale was laid out (1638), and called New Haven. 

The first assembly for organization was held in a barn; and, 
from a committee of twelve persons, there were selected 
"Seven Pillars," as they were called, for the "House of 
Wisdom." The right of suffrage was restricted to church 
members, as in Massachusetts, although in the colony of Con- 
necticut, that privilege had been conferred on all residents of 
respectable character. The Scriptures were ordered to be the 
law of the land, as they were held to contain every needful 
regulation for good government : and inasmuch as no warrant 
for trial by jury was to be found in its pages, that process was 
not established. Eaton was chosen first governor, and was 
annually, for twenty years, re-elected to the post. 



148 HISTOKY OF THE UN /TED STATES. [1636 

THE PEQUOD WAR. 

The habitations of the Wampanoags or Pokanokets, were 
east of Narragansett bay, while on tlie west side of the same 
was the tribe of the Narragansetts. West of tliese again, were 
the Pequods, a much more numerous tribe, whose domain ex- 
tended nearly to the Hudson. Between the Pequods and the 
Wampanoags was a band of Mohegans — a name frequently 
given to all the Indians of the lower Connecticut. The pesti- 
lence, already referred to, which had carried off so many of 
the aborigines of New England, had left New Hampshire and 
Vermont nearly an uninhabited wilderness; but in Maine, 
west of the Kennebec, were the tribes of the Tarenteens, and 
east of that river, the Abenakis. Exclusive of Maine, the 
New England Indians, at that time, probably numbered about 
15,000 persons. 

The origin of the war of 1636 with the Pequods, appears 
to have been as follows. The captain of a trading vessel 
from Virginia, of bad character and accused of a serious 
offence, had been ordered away from Boston, but on his way 
back, had entered the Connecticut river, where he and his 
crew were murdered by the Pequods. The latter claimed that 
the deed was done in self-defence. The same tribe had sub- 
sequently given umbrage to the Dutch, and their present of 
wampum was refused. The Narragansetts also had been guilty 
of the death of a trader, and the capture of his vessel and 
crew at Block island ; and this the settlers revenged by killing 
and drowning eleven of the offenders. Canonicus and Mian- 
tonomah, much grieved at the unauthorized murder by their 
tribe, promptly restored the vessel and prisoners, supposing 
that nothing more would be asked, as life had been taken for 
life, eleven-fold. But the event proved otherwise. 

A company of 90 volunteers under Endicott sailed to Block 
island, having orders to put all the men to death, and to make 



1636J rilE I'EQUOD WAR. 149 

prisoners of the women and children. But the islanders es- 
caping inland, Endicott destroyed their corn and canoes, 
burnt their wigwams, and sailed across to the mouth of the 
Connecticut. Then, marching against the Pequods, he burnt 
two of their villages, and returned to Boston without losing 
a man. The Pequods, frenzied at what appeared a very harsh 
retaliation, during the winter killed as many as thirty of the 
settlers on the Connecticut, and also endeavored to persuade 
the Narragansetts to join with them. But the interposition 
of Roger Williams prevented this, while Canonicus sent a 
messenger to Boston offering his services against the Pequods, 
though recommending that the women and children should 
be spared. 

The Connecticut volunteers, and some Mohegan and Narra- 
gansett allies, without waiting for reinforcements from Boston, 
proceeded against two of the fortified villages of the Pequods, 
which were situated near the mouth of the river Thames. The 
clustered wigwams, being merely protected by a rough pali- 
sade of trees and brush-wood, the guns of the assailants soon 
gained for them an entrance. Mason, the leader (who had 
been solemnly invested with the command by a clergyman), set 
the mat-covered wigwams ablaze with a fire-brand. No mercy 
was shown ; and shortly, by fire-arms and the flames, all the 
Pequod warriors, with their women and children — six hundred 
in number — perished, save only seven who escaped and seven 
who were held as prisoners. Of the English, two only were 
killed. Underbill, who figured in Kicft's Indian war, was 
prominent as a leader in this massacre. 

When the volunteers from Massachusetts arrived, the miser- 
able remnant of the Indians was savagely hunted down, for it 
was determined that the Pequods should be a tribe no more. 
Being pursued and surrounded in a swamp, and finding that 
further resistance was hopeless, most of them surrendered ; the 
rest united with the Mohegans and Narragansetts. About 

13* 



150 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1640 

fifty of the prisoners were distributed aniong the principal 
colonists as slaves. Sassacus, the head sachem, having fled 
to the Mohawks for protection, was murdered by them and 
his scalp sent to Boston. 

The colonists produced tlieir Bibles as ample warrant for their 
bloody acts. " We had sufficient light from the word of God for our 
proceedings," said Underhill ; while Mason exulted that "Thus the 
Lord was pleased to smite our enemies, and to give us their lands for 
an inheritance.'''' But the Supreme Judge has no pleasure in such 
slaughter. More truly applicable was the language spoken to Ahab, 
who coveted the vineyard of Naboth, " Hast thou killed, and also 
taken possession ?" 



THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The population of New England, at the time of the Pequod 
war, numbered nearly twenty thousand. There being as yet no 
institution for the advanced education of the youth, the gen- 
eral court, in 1637, made provision for a public school, which 
was accordingly established at Cambridge. Henry Dunster, a 
learned Hebrew scholar, was its first president. The follow- 
ing year, in acknowledgment of a large bequest of books and 
of a considerable sum of money, the endowment of John Har- 
vard, the institution received the name of Harvard College. 
Soon afterward there arrived the first printing-press used by 
the English in America. Its first important production, im- 
printed (1640) by Stephen Day, was a metrical version of the 
Psalms, which had been prepared by John Eliot and others, 
and revised by Dunster. 

The fabrication of cotton, linen and woollen cloths, was 
started, so that the colonies were not altogether dependent 
on the motlier country for such necessary supplies. Ship- 
building also became a profitable source of industry, and the 
vessels afforded a ready means for engaging in trade with the 



1643] UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 151 

other English colonies and the West Indies, and even with 
European ports. Staves and dried iish were principal articles 
of export. This commerce, however, was not by any means 
productive of unmixed good, since the ships which carried 
the New England products across the ocean were accustomed 
to go around by the Guinea coast for return cargoes of slaves. 
These, as the demand for them at the North was not great, 
were usually disposed of at the Barbadoes, or other English 
islands in the West Indies. 

The currency made use of in the colonies was of various 
sorts. There was not much coin in circulation, but beaver- 
skins were considered an excellent medium of exchange. For 
awhile, musket-balls supplied the place of small change, and 
were valued at a farthing apiece. But the usual substitute for 
coin was wampum, or pieces of shell, bead-shaped, and drilled 
through the centre so as to be strung on a thread. They were 
of two colors, white and black or dark-purple, the white being 
worth but half as much as the dark-colored. Six white or 
three black beads were valued at a penny. 

In 1641, New Hampshire was annexed to Massachusetts, 
and so continued for thirty-eight years; and, in 1643, there 
was organized the confederacy known by the title of the 
United Colonies of New England, which embraced the 
colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New 
Haven. The prime object of this alliance was mutual protec- 
tion against the encroachments of the Dutch and the French, 
but particularly against the Indians, from whom a conjoint 
attack began to be feared. It was also declared that the up- 
holding of the "truth and the liberties of the gospel" were 
to be considered as of special importance. There were ap- 
])ointed two commissioners from each of the colonies, who 
were to meet annually, the sessions to be held alternately at 
Boston, Plymouth, Hartford, and New Haven. One of their 
number was appointed president of the body, and in deciding 



152 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1644 

upon any measure the assent of six out of eight members was 
necessary. 

The provinces of Maine and Rhode Island were not invited 
to become a part of the confederacy, "because," it was af- 
firmed, "the people there ran a different course both in their 
ministry and civil administration." The Baptist settlers in 
Rhode Island were especially obnoxious. A considerable 
body of them settled, in 1644, at a place which they called 
Newport. The same year, Roger Williams having been com- 
missioned to proceed to England to solicit a charter for the 
Providence Plantations, obtained the same from the Long 
Parliament, chiefly at the intercession of Sir Henry Vane. 

About the same time, Miantonomah, having fallen into 
the hands of the Mohegans, his bitter enemies, their chief, 
Uncas, with his own hand put him to death. It is said that 
Uncas, cutting off a piece from the shoulder of the prostrate 
warrior, devoured it, exclaiming that it made his heart strong 
and was the sweetest morsel he ever ate ! Thus fell the In- 
dian friend of Roger Williams. The gravity of Miantonomah's 
offence may possibly have been greater than that of Uncas ; 
nevertheless, his fate was a cruel one and should not have 
been permitted. The Connecticut commissioners wickedly 
assented to the act in delivering him back to Uncas (who had 
referred the case to them), they knowing that the Mohegan 
chief would be his executioner. Pessacus, a brother of Mi- 
antonomah, and Ninigret, his cousin, were the chief sachems 
of the Narragansetts after the death of the great chief. 

The government organized by Williams and his associates, 
under the charter, was equally as just and liberal as the com- 
pact made when Providence was first planted. Its execu- 
tion was intrusted to a president, assistants and assembly. 
All laws enacted by the assembly were to be first submitted 
to the towns and to meet with the approval of a majority of 
them. The assistants constituted the sui)reme court of law; 



1656] PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS. 153 

but in each of the towns there was an inferior court for thef 
trial of petty cases. To every person was assured freedom 
of religious belief, as also permission to worship according to 
the dictate of his conscience ; an enactment which is worthy 
of note, as it was the first legal announcement of entire re- 
ligious liberty in the colonies. 

Massachusetts and Connecticut likewise published their 
complete code of laws shortly afterward, in 1649 and 1650. 
They recite a lengthy list of opinions declared to be heretical, 
the promulgators of any of which were declared liable to ban- 
ishment. Jesuits were prohibited from entering the country, 
a repetition of the offence being punishable with death. 

John Clarke, of Rhode Island, with two others, being on 
a visit to Lynn, the former delivered a public exhortation at 
the house of a friend, for which offence they were all arrested 
and carried by force to hear the regular preacher. Clarke 
was sentenced, in addition, to pay a fine of ^^20 or be 
whipped ; part of the charge against him being that he re- 
fused to take off his hat in the meeting-house. Holmes, one 
of his companions, was fined j[^2P, in addition to a flogging. 
Upon being loosed from the whipping-post, he exclaimed : 
"Although the Lord hath made it easy to me, I pray God it 
may not be laid to your charge." Two persons, for shaking 
hands with him and uttering words of praise, were both fined 
and imprisoned. At a later date, the learned Dunster, presi- 
dent of Harvard College, was fined for his Baptist belief, and 
obliged to resign his position. We must now turn our atten- 
tion to the far more bitter persecution of the Friends, or, as 
they were then in derision called, the Quakers. 

THE PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS. 

There existed no law in the province especially directed 
against the Quakers when, in 1656, Mary Fisher and Ann 



154 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1656 

Austin, members of that greatly-traduced society, arrived in 
Boston harbor from the Barbadoes. The commissioners were 
duly apprised of the coming of these inoffensive women, who, 
it was declared, were "fit instruments to propagate the King- 
dom of Satan," and a law was solicited to debar the entrance 
"from foreign lands of such notorious heretics." Their 
trunks being searched, a large number of books which they 
contained were carried ashore and burnt in the market-place by 
the hangman ; the women were then imprisoned by order of 
Bellingham, the deputy-governor, and their persons searched 
for signs of witchcraft. Being clear of any indications of 
that nature, after enduring an imprisonment of five weeks, 
they were placed on board a vessel and sent away. In the 
meantime eight others of the same sect arrived. These were 
kept in jail for the space of eleven weeks, and then sent back 
to England at the charge of the master of the vessel ; he 
having been imprisoned until he promised to take them 
away. 

A strenuous law was forthwith enacted, by which it was 
provided that any one who brought a Quaker into the colony 
should suffer a fine of ;^ioo, besides incurring the obligation 
to carry such a one away again. The punishment of the 
Quaker, in such a case, was to be flogging, and imprison- 
ment at hard labor until transported. Any one defending 
the opinions of the Quakers was also liable to a fine and 
other penalties. But these enactments failed of their pur- 
pose. 

A widow who came from England to Massachusetts, having 
debts owing her there, was thrust into prison, and confined 
three months \ then sent back to England, her long voyage 
resulting in no relief to herself and fatherless children. Be- 
side many others who suffered, were Lawrence and Cassandra 
Southwick, an aged couple living near Boston. Though not 
Quakers, yet upon beholding the cruelties which were inflicted 



i657] PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS. 155 

upon that peaceful people, they were led, with others, to for- 
sake the appointed assemblies and to meet by themselves on 
the first day of the week. For this, Lawrence and Cassandra 
received thirty stripes with a knotted whip of three cords, 
and part of their household goods were sold to pay a fine im- 
posed for being absent from the established meeting. 

The rulers, believing that the law was still too lenient — for 
the Quakers persisted in returning even after being fined, 
flogged and imprisoned — ordered that those found guilty of 
coming back after banishment, should suffer the loss of their 
ears, and have their tongues bored through with a hot iron. 
One, William Brend, having been apprehended and brought 
before the magistrates, was accused of holding certain unchris- 
tian doctrines. The allegation was shown to be untrue ; 
nevertheless, Brend was imprisoned in Boston, and having 
declined to work for the jailor, was put in irons, his neck and 
heels tied together, and kept in that trying position for many 
hours. No food was given him for several days. In this, his 
weak condition, having received about a hundred blows with 
a pitched rope, he nearly died under the inhuman torture. 

The news of this outrage becoming known in the town, 
caused such an outcry, that Endicott, the governor, sent his 
surgeon to the prison to see what could be done. The sur- 
geon reported the condition of the victim to be so deplorable, 
that his flesh would rot off the bones ere the bruised parts 
could be healed. This still farther exasperated the people, 
but the magistrates cast the blame upon the jailor, and said 
that he should be duly dealt with. But John Norton, the 
principal clergyman in the town, as well as a chief instigator 
of the persecution, exclaimed, that as " Brend endeavored to 
beat our gospel ordinances black and blue, if he then be 
beaten black and blue, it is but just upon him — and I will ap- 
pear in his behalf that did so." 

And now Norton and others of the clergy, apprehending 



156 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1658 

that scourging and cutting off of ears, was still insufficient 
punishment for those who held to the faith and practice of the 
Quakers, petitioned the magistrates that a law be enacted to 
banish the so-called "heretics," upon pain of death. A 
court composed of twenty-five persons was accordingly held, 
and, by a majority of one vote only, a law was passed per- 
mitting a county court of three magistrates to decree the 
punishment of death, without benefit of trial by jury: a clear 
infringement of the fundamental law of England. This result 
so troubled one who was kept away from the court by illness, 
and whose vote would have defeated the measure, that, weep- 
ing, he declared he would have crept to the court upon his 
knees rather than it should have passed. The law, however, 
upon the earnest protest of the dissenting voters, was so 
amended as that trial by jury was allowed. 

Mention has been made of the harsh treatment endured by 
Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick. A son and daughter 
of these, likewise refusing to frequent the assemblies of those 
who had become such relentless persecutors, were each heavily 
fined for the offence. Upon account of their low estate, the 
penalty could not be produced ; whereupon the court decreed 
that they should be sold "to any of the English nation, at 
Virginia or Barbadoes, to answer the said fines." But there 
was no master of a ship to be found who was base enough to 
carry them away : the mariners remembered better than did 
the rulers, that the judgments of the Lord were of old time 
against those who " sold the righteous for silver, and the poor 
for a pair of shoes." 

In Whittier's ballad of "Cassandra Southwick" the above 
incident is narrated with much beauty and pathos : 

" ' Pile my ship with bars of silver, — pack with coins of Spanish gold, 
From keel-piece up to deck-plank, the roomage of her hold, 
By the living God who made me ! — I would sooner in yon bay 
Sink ship and crew and cargo, than bear this child away.' 



1659] PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS. 157 

" ' Well answered, worthy captain, shame on their cruel laws !' 
Ran through the crowd in murmurs loud the people's just applause. 
'Like the herdsman of Tekoa, in Israel of old, 
Shall we see the poor and righteous again for silver sold ?' " 

We now come to the cases in which certain of the Quakers 
suffered the penalty of death, rather than offend against the 
drawings of the Holy Spirit, as clearly revealed in their 
inmost souls. They doubtless felt that where the blood- 
thirsty spirit of intolerance prevailed, as it then did in New 
England, there were their presence and exhortations and even 
the sacrifice of their lives, particularly needed. In obedience 
to such plain intimations of duty as they felt that they could 
not, without guilt, withstand, came Marmaduke Stevenson, a 
yeoman of Yorkshire, William Robinson, merchant, of Lon- 
don, and Mary Dyer, widow of the recorder of Providence 
Plantation. 

These were all imprisoned upon the charge of being Quakers. 
They were then banished ; but, having returned, the sentence 
of death was passed upon them by Endicott. Mary Dyer, 
however, was reprieved when on the scaffold. Robinson died, 
exclaiming, "I suffer for Christ, in Avhom I live, and for 
whom I die." Stevenson, as he stepped up the ladder, uttered 
the words, "Be it known unto all this day, that we suffer not 
as evil doers, but for conscience' sake." The following year 
Mary Dyer again returned, and being once more sentenced 
to death, remarked that her blood would be required at the 
hands of those who did wilfully shed it, adding, "But for 
those that do it in the simplicity of their hearts, I desire the 
Lord to forgive them. I came to do the will of my Father, 
and in obedience to his will, I stand even to death." But so 
hardened were some of these persecutors, that Adderton, a 
general, who was one of the court, said scoffingly, — "She 
did hang as a flag for others to take example by." 

Fearful of the result of these bloody proceedings, the 

14 



158 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1660 

magistrates sent over to King Charles a declaration of the 
intentions which influenced them in so acting towards the 
Quakers, and ended with the poor apology that " we desire 
their lives absent, rather than their deaths present." In a 
second address to the king, they said that the magistrate, in 
conscience bound, held the sword's point outward, and that 
if the Quakers chose to rush upon it, they brought their blood 
upon their own heads ! 

In the meantime William Leddra, who had suffered at the 
same time that Brend was so cruelly scourged, felt the neces- 
sity so forcibly laid upon him to return to the province, that 
he repaired thither once more, and hence was again impris- 
oned. Being brought into court, ignominiously chained to a 
log, to receive his sentence, he appealed for trial to the laws 
of England, saying that, "If by them I am found guilty, I 
refuse not to die:" for the English law did not punish the 
Quakers with death. Then appeared a certain Wenlock 
Christison, who also had been banished under the extreme 
penalty. Fearless in the right, with a courage which quailed 
not before the assembled magistrates, Wenlock came forward. 
For a few moments there was silence in the court, the rulers 
being amazed and awe-struck at the sudden appearance. Then 
the governor demanded why he, having been banished, pre- 
sumed to return at the risk of his life, to which Wenlock 
made reply, that he came with a warning to them to shed no 
more innocent blood. Nevertheless Leddra was executed the 
following day. As the executioner placed the halter round' 
his neck, he was heard to say — "I commit my righteous 
cause unto thee, O God." 

As for the brave Christison, he was kept several weeks in 
prison, the rulers seeming fearful to proceed against him. 
But finally the council being agreed, he was brought up to tlie 
bar, and Endicott demanded of him if he had anything to 
say for himself, why he should not die? To which he 



i66o] PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS. 159 

answered, "I have done nothing worthy of death; if I had, 
I refuse not to die." It was then said to him that his crime 
was that of rebellion and ought to be punished ; but he replied 
that he came in obedience to the God of heaven and in love 
to them, for that all have account to give of the deeds done 
in the body; and added, " Take heed, for you cannot escape 
the righteous judgments of God." To which the general 
Adderton made answer: "You pronounce woes and judg- 
ments, and those that are gone before you, pronounced woes 
and judgments, but the judgments of the Lord God are not 
come upon us as yet." Then Wenlock warned his judges 
not to be lifted up in pride, charging Adderton especially 
that his doom would be sudden, and was even then near 
at hand. When the vote was taken as to sentencing the 
prisoner to death, there was a division of opinion, but the 
governor insisted on the sentence, which he accordingly 
pronounced. 

Wenlock having been condemned, solemnly declared to the 
rulers that he scarcely believed they had the power to hurt 
him, and furthermore, that he believed they should never 
more take Quakers' lives from them. And thus it turned out; 
for within a few days, himself and nearly thirty others were 
liberated ; while, several months later, appeared an order from 
the king that those summary proceedings must cease, and that 
the accused might be sent over to England for trial, together 
with the indictments laid to their charge. 

Although punishment by hanging was stayed, yet many and 
sorrowful were the scourgings now inflicted. Only two or 
three cases need be instanced. One, was that of Edward Whar- 
ton, who had once befriended the governor when the latter 
was in want, but now, Wharton being a Quaker, was brought 
to the market-place in Boston, and being stripped to the waist, 
was bound to the wheel of a cannon, and lashed most cruelly. 
Josiah Southwick — a brother of those two who had been 



i6o HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1661 

ordered to be sold — was tied to a cart, and underwent the 
same torture as did Wharton. "They that know God to be 
their strength," he said, "cannot fear what man can do." 
At Dover, three women of the same sect were sentenced to 
be tied to the tail of a cart, to be driven through eleven towns 
(a distance of 80 miles), and to be whipped upon their bare 
backs ten stripes in each place. This was in winter. But 
again they returned to Dover, and one of them while kneel- 
ing in prayer was seized, and having been dragged a long 
distance in the snow, over stumps and fallen trees, was then 
placed in confinement. Her companion met with similar 
barbarous treatment. 

General Adderton came to his end, sudden and unawares, 
as Wenlock Christison had prophesied; for on a day when he 
had reviewed his soldiers and was riding proudly by the place 
where the Quakers were usually loosed from the cart after 
they had been whipped, his horse took fright, and, dashing 
him violently to the ground, he died most miserably. Endi- 
cott, soon after the scourging of Wharton, was visited with a 
loathsome disease which carried him off; while Norton, who 
had been so active in procuring the death-law, and in securing 
its enforcement, died suddenly in his house, exclaimiu/^-- 
" The hand [or the judgments] of the Lord are upon me.'' 



CHAPTER XII. 

MARYLAND. PROGRESS OF THE VIRGINIA COLONY. 

1632 — 1683. 



LORD BALTIMORE— THE FOUNDER OF MARYLAND. 

The gradual ascendency of the Protestant faith in England, 
since the death of that persecuting sovereign who is known 
in history as "Bloody Mary," had resulted in the establish- 
ment of another form of state religion, but with the spirit 
of intolerance by no means allayed. The Puritan non-con- 
formists had indeed sought, and secured, a home for their 
brethren, but, as we have seen, the broad mantle of charity 
did not overspread all their land. And now the English 
Papists, exposed alike to the enmity of the State-religionists 
and the Puritans, turned their gaze also, with hopes of relief, 
to the Western World. They found an able helper in George 
Calvert, a member of the former Virginia Company of I^on- 
don, and also Secretary of the kingdom. 

Shortly after the time of the landing of the Pilgrims, Calvert 
obtained a grant of territory, which he called by the name 
of Avalon — it being the south-eastern part of the island of 
Newfoundland. A settlement was effected here (1624), which 
Calvert twice visited ; but being well persuaded that any 
colony would eventually languish and fail of success if planted 
in so high a latitude, exposed also as it would be to the jeal- 
ousy of the French and to the plundering fishermen of the 
neighboring shores, the project was abandoned, and a more 

15* 161 



1 62 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1632 

desirable locality sought for. The situation of Virginia 
greatly recommended it, yet Calvert, upon his visit of inspec- 
tion to that province, found that he could not, as a Romanist, 
take the oath of supremacy which would be there tendered 
him. He therefore turned his attention to another quarter, 
as yet unoccupied, where men's consciences would be left un- 
trammelled. Previous to this visit Calvert had acquired the 
title of Lord Baltimore. 

The territory which was chosen, and for which a grant was 
obtained from Charles the First, was that portion lying north 
of the Potomac river, bounded by the 40th parallel of lati- 
tude, and extending in width from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
head-waters of the Potomac. It received the name of Mary- 
land, in honor of Henrietta Maria, the queen. Lord Balti- 
more having died before the charter was issued, his son Cecil 
at once succeeded to the proprietorship, in 1632. By the 
charter, the province was conferred upon the first Lord Balti- 
more and his heirs, with power to make all necessary laws 
consonant to reason and not repugnant to the laws of Eng- 
land, subject, however, to the "advice, consent and approba- 
tion of the freemen of the province." This was a wise and 
prompt concession to the rights of the governed, which, in 
the case of Virginia and New England, had not at first been 
recognized. The ecclesiastical law of England was declared 
to be the ruling church power, but it was so bent by the 
Baltimores as to conform to Catholicism as well. 

The charter met with great opposition from William Clay- 
borne, Secretary of the council of Virginia, who, in his 
capacity of surveyor, had made explorations in the Chesa- 
peake, and, furthermore, had obtained a royal license which 
permitted him to trade in those parts. He had established 
a post at the mouth of the Susquehanna, and another on the 
long island of Kent, in the bay, east of Annapolis — both 
within the territory just granted to Lord Baltimore. Leaving 



1634] LORD BALTIMORE. 163 

Clayborne to obtain redress at law, the first Maryland colony, 
under Leonard Calvert, a brother of Cecil, the proprietary, 
sailed in two ships, the Ark and the Dove, and early in the 
year 1634, landed on the north side of the Potomac, near its 
mouth, at an Indian village which they called St. Mary's. 

Fortunately for the colonists, the Indians kindly agreed 
that the whites should occupy the wigwams and be permitted 
to till the cleared ground. A good crop of corn was secured 
the same year, and the Dove was sent to Massachusetts to 
obtain a supply of fish in exchange for the grain. In the 
meantime the feud with Clayborne came to a crisis ; for he, 
having made a hostile demonstration, the settlers of St. Mary's 
possessed themselves of the island of Kent, though not with- 
out bloodshed. Clayborne escaped to Virginia, and being 
a[)prehended by the governor of that province, was sent to 
England. His island property was confiscated by the Mary- 
land Assembly. 

To encourage emigration, the proprietary promised to allot 
a manor of a thousand acres to every settler who would trans- 
port five men to the colony ; the land to be held at a yearly 
rent of twenty shillings, payable in produce. A married im- 
migrant received one hundred acres for himself, the same for 
his wife, and fifty acres for each child, besides grants for the 
servants, — the whole subject to a rent of a few shillings. In 
accordance with the charter, deputies met and formed a House 
of Burgesses ; framed a constitution ; and enacted a code of 
laws. Lord Baltimore had first sent over a set of statutes 
drawn up by himself, but the settlers refused to concede to 
him any privilege as to the power of legislation. 

The cultivation, and the price, of tobacco, early became a 
matter for legislative regulation in Maryland, as well as in 
Virginia. In both provinces, every person who planted that 
staple was required to cultivate two acres of corn. But as 
large quantities of the weed were also produced in several of 



1 64 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1624 

the West India islands, and as the price had greatly declined, 
it was enacted in 1639 by the Virginia Assembly, in order to 
enhance the value, that half the crop should be burnt ; and 
that for the succeeding two years a reduced amount should be 
raised. Tobacco, in fact, was the currency in Virginia and 
Maryland, as wampum was at the same period in New Nether- 
land and New England : physicians and lawyers received 
their fees in it, drunkenness and profanity were punishable by 
fines payable in the same, and if has already been stated that 
the wives of some of the first Virginia settlers were paid for 
in tobacco. 

INDIAN TROUBLES IN VIRGINIA. CLAYBORNE OF KENT 
ISLAND. 

At the time of the dissolution of the London Virginia 
company in 1624, and the reversion of the province to the 
king, Wyatt was governor. Five years later, John Harvey 
held the office ; and it was he who sent the fugitive Clay- 
borne to England. At Point Comfort, at the entrance of 
James river, Harvey built a fort, where all persons entering 
the colony w^ere tendered the oath of allegiance and suprem- 
acy, and all vessels were sent therefrom to Jamestown before 
any part of their cargoes could be landed. During his ad- 
ministration, a law was made, with respect to the Indians, 
that no person should be permitted to speak or parley with 
them, and the commanders were authorized to fall upon any 
who might be found lurking about the plantations. To sell 
powder and shot to Indians involved the entire forfeiture of 
a person's estate. 

Under Sir William Berkeley, Harvey's successor, who 
held the governorship for the most part of forty years, an en- 
actment was made that all ministers should use the liturgy and 
conform to the usages of the church of England. Non-con- 
formists were requested to depart the colony; Romish priests 



1644] CLAYBORNE OF KENT ISLAND. 165 

being compelled to do so within the space of five days. Some 
of the Puritan colonists sent a request to Boston for a supply 
of ministers, three of whom were accordingly deputed with 
letters of commendation to Governor Berkeley and the coun- 
cil ; but although they were well entertained, yet as they 
refused to use the established liturgy, the governor very soon 
sent them back to New England. 

In 1644, twenty-two years after the first massacre of the 
Virginia settlers by the Powhatans under Opechancanough, a 
second sudden uprising occurred, instigated, it was said, by 
the same chief. This warrior, it is true, was of a crafty na- 
ture, yet he had deeply felt, from the first arrival of the whites, 
how grossly the tribes were being wronged out of their pos- 
sessions. Savage-like, he waited sullenly for the time of 
retribution ; beholding, meanwhile, how his enemies con- 
tinued their encroachments, and, in accordance with their 
so-called Christian laws shot down every Indian who showed 
himself. In this second onslaught, about 500 of the colonists 
were massacred in one day. During the fierce struggle which 
ensued, the aged chief was captured, and, having been taken 
to Jamestown, was killed by a soldier who had been appointed 
to guard him. The Indians sued for peace, and gave up all 
claim to the land between the James and York rivers. No 
Indian was permitted to return thither under pain of death. 

The early settlers of Maryland were mostly at peace with 
the natives, although occasionally slight disputes arose with 
the Susquehannas on the north, and with the Nanticokes on 
the eastern shore of the bay. But the chief antagonist of the 
colony, or rather of the proj)rietary's government, was Clay- 
borne of Kent island. He had applied to the assembly for 
the restoration of his property, but his claim having been re- 
jected, he was joined by other disaffected ones, who, forcing 
Calvert to return to Virginia, possessed themselves also of the 
disputed island. The governor, after an absence of over a 



l66 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1654 

year, returned with an armed force and established himself 
again in power, though he died in the following year, 1647. 

When news arrived in Virginia of the execution of Charles 
I., the governor of that province declared in favor of the 
second Charles, and against the rule of Parliament. An ex- 
pedition, in charge of five commissioners, was accordingly 
despatched to the Chesapeake (1651), to oblige the colonists 
"to be true and faithful to the commonwealth of England as 
it is now established, without king or House of Lords." Two 
of these commissioners were Richard Bennett, who had been 
a Puritan emigrant to Maryland, and William Clayborne. 
Berkeley having been deposed, a new assembly was called, 
who chose Bennett governor, and Clayborne secretary. 

The claimant of Kent island being now in a position of 
influence, lost no time in making the power of the commis- 
sioners felt in the adjoining colony of Maryland. Stone, 
the governor, although a parliamentarian, was deposed, but 
upon the petition of the inhabitants was reinstated in office. 
Two years later, however, when Cromwell was proclaimed 
Protector (1654), Bennett and Clayborne resented Stone's 
proceedings, which they thought savored too much of a strict 
allegiance to Lord Baltimore, the proprietary. Hence Stone 
was again deposed, the commissioners being aided by the 
Puritan settlers of Ann Arundel — a county which had been 
so named in honor of Lady Baltimore. Papists and pre- 
latists were arbitrarily disfranchised, and were forbidden to 
sit in the new assembly ; an act of intolerance such as had not 
been attempted by the Catholic proprietary. 

MARYLAND DURING CROMWELL'S PROTECTORATE, AND 
UNDER CHARLES II. 

On the north side of the lower Patuxent was a private 
house, used as a state-house, and here the records of the 
colony were kept. South of the Patuxent, near the end of 



i675] MARYLAND UNDER CHARLES IL 167 

the peninsula comprised between that estuary and the Poto- 
mac, were the CathoHc settlements of St. Mary's; while, at 
Providence (afterward Annapolis), the Puritans were chiefly 
located. Stone, who resided at St. Mary's, being blamed by 
Lord Baltimore For surrendering his authority so easily, now 
called the Catholic settlers to arms. Having first seized the 
records at the house on the Patuxent, he proceeded with 
about 200 followers, in several small vessels, to make an at- 
tack upon the Puritan settlement ; but the attempt resulted 
disastrously, one-fourth of the assailants being killed and 
wounded. Although the life of Stone was spared, four of his 
principal officers were condemned to death. 

The cause of the contestants was then referred to the Pro- 
tector, by whom two commissioners were appointed to decide 
the matter. Their report was favorable to Lord Baltimore, 
who sent over his brother, Philip Calvert, to be secretary 
of the province, and Josiah Fendal to be governor. The 
Puritans of Ann Anmdel, refusing to acknowledge the 
authority of those officers, it became necessary to secure the 
mediation of the governor of Virginia. Upon the restora- 
tion of Charles IL, in 1660, Philip Calvert received a com- 
mission as governor in Fendal's place, while the latter, though 
tried and found guilty of acts treasonable to Calvert, was 
granted a pardon. At this time the English having taken 
possession of New Netherland and New Sweden, Lord Balti- 
more claimed, under his charter, the right to the land on the 
Delaware below the 40th parallel of latitude (that of Phila- 
delphia), biit the Duke of York, who had conquered the 
land from the Dutch, insisted on retaining his acquisitions. 

Cecil, Lord Baltimore, died in 1675, having been forty- 
three years proprietary. His administration was, in the main, 
a mild and just one. The population of the province although 
Catholic at the first, did not afterward receive many acces- 
sions from that denomination. Notwithstandins: that the 



l68 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1660 

religious scruples of the colonists were usually respected, yet 
the Quakers suffered occasional hardships for maintaining 
their testimonies upon War and Oaths. Their refusal to per- 
form military duty subjected them to fines and to harsh 
imprisonment ; while the forfeiture of their property was 
sometimes the consequence of declining to take an oath. 

Charles, the eldest son of Cecil, now became proprietor. 
For a number of years previously, he had resided in the 
province as its governor, having succeeded his uncle Philip ; 
but upon returning to England he was called to account upon 
the charge of not maintaining the established Episcopal re- 
ligion ; that there were no parsonages provided for, no tithes 
collected as in Virginia, and that the morals of the place were 
in a low state. Lord Baltimore, in his defence, referred to 
the large number of religious creeds which prevailed there ; 
but this answer was not considered sufficient. Meanwhile, 
these proceedings in England encouraged the malcontents in 
the colony — of whom Fendal was a ringleader — to seek to 
undermine the authority of the Catholic proprietor. Where- 
upon the latter, in 1681, having hastened his return, Fendal 
was put under arrest, and, being found guilty of sedition, was 
promptly banished. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BERKELEY, OF VIRGINIA. 

In Virginia, the news of the King's Restoration (1660) was 
followed by the re-election of Berkeley as governor, after a 
retirement of eight years. His salary was a large one for the 
time, being about $3400 in money, collectable from the duty 
on exports ; also 60,000 lbs. of tobacco, to be taken out of 
the levy; a bushel of corn in the ear, from every tithable in- 
habitant ; besides the customs chargeable on Dutch vessels 
from New Netherland. The latter fee, however, did not long 
continue; for by a navigation act, passed in England, all 



l66o] VIRGINIA UNDER BERKELEY. 169 

foreign vessels were forbidden to trade with the colonies of 
the Dutch. As the Virginians built no vessels of their own, 
Berkeley was at once commissioned to proceed to England in 
behalf of the planters ; for the new act, by removing comjie- 
tition, would place them at the mercy of the traders. AJ- 
though the governor's mission was unsuccessful, he took 
advantage of the opportunity to enroll himself as one of the 
eight proprietors of the new province of Carolina. 

The organization of society in Virginia was radically dif- 
ferent from what it was in New England. In New England, 
the settlements were made in villages, each having its school, 
meeting-house, and concentrated local government. As a 
consequence of this aggregation of people in close communi- 
ties, the manufacture of various fabrics soon arose, and the 
colony was not long dependent on the mother country. In 
Virginia, on the contrary, the early settlers took up large 
plantations on the tide-water rivers, and, in the cultivation 
of the one staple, tobacco, required the services of many 
helpers, who were at first indentured white servants, more 
often than slaves. All manufactured goods were supplied by 
England, and were usually brought in the vessel which came 
to the planter's wharf to take away his tobacco.. Hence, vil- 
lages and towns were few and of slow growth, and education 
not being diffused to those of low degree, the control of the 
government tended to concentration in the bands of the 
planters. 

Tiie Quaker and Anabaptist heresies, as they were called, 
were proceeded against according to the code of New Eng- 
land. For a ship-master to bring Quakers into the colony, 
or for any one to entertain persons of that sect, or to permit 
an assembly of them in or near his house, there was imposed 
a penalty of ;^ioo. Fines were likewise imposed upon all, 
Quakers or others, who did not attend the parish chapels, or 
who refused to allow their children to be baptized by the 
H 15 



I70 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1673 

"lawful" minister. A more lenient spirit began to be mani- 
fested toward the Indians. All persons found encroaching 
upon their lands were to be removed ; none could be sold 
into slavery ; and as proof of an apparent desire to secure 
just treatment, several of the colonists were heavily fined for 
wrongs committed and for intrusions upon them. 

The fact of the Africans being heathen, had been esteemed 
a sufficient reason why they should be held as slaves ; but 
when, during Berkeley's administration (1667), the question 
was raised in the assembly of Virginia, as to whether those 
negroes who had become Christians could any longer be held 
to servitude, a law was promptly enacted that their freedom 
was not to be secured by any change of religion. It was also 
declared that if slaves be killed by extreme correction, the 
act should not be rated as a great crime. 

Some of the Polynesian islanders understood tlie proper effect 
of Christianity upon War and Slavery, differently from these legis- 
lators. "When," says William Ellis, "Christianity was adopted 
by the people, human sacrifices, infant murder and war, entirely 
ceased." This writer and another missionary agree that the natives 
also gave freedom immediately to all their slaves : they never con- 
sidered a pure religion and servitude to be compatible. Titus 
Coan, an- American missionary to the Sandwich islands, went in 
1833 to Patagonia with a single companion. They were unarmed, 
and suffered no harm. "They were not jealous or afraid of us," 
says Coan, "and we left them unscathed, under the wing of our 
Immanuel. After we left Patagonia, seven arjned missionaries were 
starved to death on Terra del Fuego, because they feared to go 
with the natives, and the natives feared them. At a later date eight 
missionaries (armed) were slaughtered, at one time, by the same 
savages." 

The year 1673 was marked by a startling event in the his- 
tory of the colony. The king, a few years previously, had 
granted to Lord Culpeper, the whole of the peninsula in- 
cluded between the Potomac and the Rappahannoc rivers, 



*673] BACON\S /REBELLION. j-j 

known by the name of the "Northern Neck." And novv, with 
a marvellous prodigality, the same sovereign hand assigned to 
Lords Culpeper and Arlington, two noblemen notoriously 
rapacious, not only the Neck, but the whole province of Vir- 
ginia, to be under their control for the term of 31 years 
Alarmed at this remarkable conveyance, a committee was 
appointed to proceed to England to buy off the grant ; and, 
to furnish the means, a large special tax, payable in tobacco,' 
was imposed upon the inhabitants. This onerous tax, as well 
as the fact that the tenure of their lands was rendered thus 
uncertain by reason of the royal caprice, produced much dis- 
satisfaction among the colonists. But, for the mass of the in- 
habitants, there were other and still deeper causes of grievance 
and alarm, to wit : the recent restriction of the right of suf- 
frage to freeholders only; the exemption of lands from taxa- 
tion, and the consequent increased burden placed upon the 
poorer part of the community; also, the high salaries paid to 
the governor and the burgesses, which were largely raised by 
the unequal tax upon the people. These, together with a 
formidable Indian outbreak, were some of the causes of dis- 
content which eventuated in Bacon's Rebellion. 



BACON'S REBELLION. LORD CULPEPER. 

Simultaneous with the Indian war of Philip of Pokanoket, 
in New England, came an aggressive movement of the Sene- 
cas of New York upon the Susquehannahs who dwelt at the 
head of the Chesapeake. The Susquehannahs, in their turn 
pressed upon the Maryland settlements, and a war with the 
whites resulted. Then followed depredations by the tribes 
south of the Potomac. Thereupon a body of the Virginians 
headed by John Washington, of the Northern Neck (ancestor 
of the President), proceeded against the natives; who, being 



172 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1673 

hard pressed, sent six of their chiefs to treat for peace. These 
messengers were slaughtered by the whites to whom they were 
bearing the olive branch. 

Such perfidy, inflicted upon the persons of envoys, precipi- 
tated a murderous attack by the Indians upon the borders of 
the colony, as far south as the falls of the James. In the 
latter neighborhood, where the city of Richmond now stands, 
was the plantation of a talented and eloquent young planter, 
Nathaniel Bacon. He had been a student of law in the 
Temple, at London, from whence he had but recently arrived. 
His plantation had been attacked by the Indians, but, dis- 
daining Berkeley's plan of protection by the use of forts. 
Bacon demanded a general's commission to organize the 
militia and follow in pursuit of the foe. This was refused by 
the governor, who, it appears, had a monopoly of the Indian 
trade, and desired that his interests should not suffer loss ; 
whereupon. Bacon, having been speedily joined by several 
hundred of the planters, went to the war unauthorized. The 
governor's Indian monopoly partly explains why, prior to the 
outbreak, a more friendly course had been pursued toward the 
natives. 

Berkeley proclaimed Bacon and his followers, rebels, and 
ordered troops to go after them ; but in the meantime, the 
counties on the lower York and James, declaring themselves 
in sympathy with the insurgents, the governor was obliged to 
yield. A new assembly was called, to which Bacon, who had 
successfully encountered the Indians, was appointed a burgess. 
A code of liberal laws was framed which was known as 
" Bacon's Laws"; the right of suffrage was restored to all 
the freemen, and the taxes and emoluments were curtailed ; but, 
the young leader not receiving the commission which Berkeley 
had promised, summoned nearly 500 of his adherents to 
Jamestown, and forced the governor finally to accede to his 
demand. These acts of revolution, which were a sort of ante- 



1676] BACON'S REBELLION. 1 73 

type of the Revolutionary War, transpired in the summer of 
1676, just a century prior to the Declaration of Independence. 

Bacon once more started out against the Indians ; but he 
had not been gone many days, when Berkeley again proclaimed 
him a traitor. Drummond, who had been governor of the North 
Carolina settlements, and Lawrence, a pupil of Oxford, brought 
the news to Bacon ; who, mustering his adherents in the lower 
counties, obliged the governor to retire across the bay to the 
Eastern Shore. By liberal promises of money and plunder, 
Berkeley raised a force of nearly a thousand men of Accomac, 
with whom he proceeded, in 15 ships and sloops, up the James 
river to the little capital. Bacon had already defeated the 
Indians a second time, and disbanded his men, when he learnt 
of the arrival of the fleet; but without loss of time, his fol- 
lowers were again in arms and moving against Jamestown. 

After a short siege the governor and the royalists deserted 
the town, and embarking on the fleet at night, sailed down 
the river; while Bacon and his men, in order that their oppo- 
nents might be debarred from the protection which the build- 
ings afforded, set them on fire — Drummond and Lawrence, it 
is said, applying the torch to their own dwellings. The newly- 
erected State-house and the little brick chapel, the first -built 
in the colony, were burnt with the rest. The voyager who 
now passes by the Jamestown peninsula, will notice, close to 
the river's bank, one end of the chapel, with its arched win- 
dow, still standing: it is all that remains of the earliest set- 
tlement in Virginia. Upon the destruction of this place, the 
royalist troops who were marching against Bacon, decided to 
join his cause in a body; but before that leader could carry 
out his design of subduing the Berkeley party across the bay, 
he was seized with a miasmatic disorder, which proved fatal. 

The insurgents, having lost their leader, were not able to 
cope with Beverly, who took the i)art of the governor. Over 
twenty of Bacon's adherents, among whom was Drummond, 

IS* 



174 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1680 

were hung. And although a proclamation arrived in the 
meantime from Charles the Second, that a pardon should be 
granted to all the insurgents except Bacon, yet Berkeley refused 
to discontinue the executions, until finally the assembly voted 
him an address, petitioning that no more blood should be 
spilled. The governor, wliose conduct had been greatly cen- 
sured, very soon returned to England ; but he died shortly 
after his arrival there, before he had had an opportunity to 
secure an audience with the king. 

Ardent, talented and brave-spirited though Nathaniel Bacon 
appears to have been, yet we cannot applaud either his plan 
for overcoming the Indian difficulty, nor yet his treatment of 
the arrogant and avaricious Berkeley. The wrongs which had 
stirred the Indian heart to aggression, were greater by far than 
were those of the settlers, and undoubtedly a just and lenient 
spirit would have led to reconciliation, because never has it 
failed when it has been fairly tried. The war resulted in great 
loss of life, and an unjust decree of slavery directed against 
the Indians, besides the perpetuation in their minds of a false 
conception of the religion which the whites had so dishonored. 

Although Bacon appeared as the champion of the majority 
of the planters against aristocratic assumption, yet what good 
was accomplished that could not have been better secured by 
a dignified and united presentation of their grievances to the 
attention of the assembly? To sum up the untoward result 
in a sentence : Bacon was dead — twenty-three of his adherents 
had been hung — Jamestown was in ashes — a liberal charter 
had been withheld by the king — the old laws and burdensome 
levies were renewed — and the right of franchise again confined 
to the freeholders. 

Lord Culpeper having purchased Arlington's share of the 
grant of Virginia and received from the king a commission as 
governor for life, appeared in the province in 1680. Although 
granted a salary of ^2000, he came to gather the perquisites 



1683] LORD CULPEPER. 175 

which his property might afford, rather than to seek the 
colony's prosperity. One, John Biickner, having brought a 
printing-press to the colony (1682), imprinted the laws passed 
by the assembly; but being called to account by Culpeper 
and his council, and required to wait until the king's wish 
could be heard, he was informed that the royal instructions 
were, to positively forbid the press to be used. 

The condition of Virginia at that time was one of much 
distress. The over-production of tobacco, by reason of the 
increasing number of slaves, had reduced the price of the 
staple to a penny per pound. The navigation acts, which 
operated against the interests of the colony, might have had 
their evils diminished by the home-building of vessels, which 
would not have been liable to duty, and thus an increased 
production of corn in place of tobacco, for export, would have 
been required. But this measure was not adopted. A regi- 
ment of soldiers had been sent over by the king, and, being 
quartered upon the inhabitants, caused grievous complaints on 
account of the burden they entailed ; while the troops them- 
selves suffered greatly from sickness. Culpeper, upon his re- 
turn to England in 1683, sold his patent to the crown for a 
pension, and a successor was appointed to the governorship in 
the person of Lord Howard of Effingham. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CAROLINA. 

1663— 1688. 



THE PALATINE PROPRIETORS AND THEIR MODEL CONSTITU- 
TION. 

To eight courtier-noblemen, King Charles II. of England 
granted all the territory south of Virginia as far as the latitude 
of Port Royal ; a country, nevertheless, which the Spaniards 
claimed as a portion of the province of Florida, being held 
by the castle of St. Augustine as an appendage of the Spanish 
crown. Of the eight proprietors, several were men well-known 
in the political arena : General Monk, now become Duke of 
Albemarle, the leader of the parliamentary party Mdiich re- 
stored the crown to the House of Stuart; Lord Clarendon, 
prime minister of the king; Lord Ashley Cooper, Earl of 
Shaftesbury, the wealthy and intellectual chancellor; and Sir 
William Berkeley, governor of Virginia. Beside these, there 
were Lord John Berkeley, a brother of William ; Lord Craven ; 
Sir George Carteret and Sir John Colleton. This grant was 
made in 1663, three years after the king's restoration. 

Half-a-century before the time of the royal grant, and soon 
after Jamestown was settled, the country about Nansemond 
river (an affluent of the James) began to be inhabited ; and 
from there a number of parties proceeded down the Chowan, 
and settled near its confluence with Albemarle Sound. Yet it 
was not until 1662, when George Durant purchased from 
176 



1 665] THE PALATINE PROPRIETORS. lyy 

the Indians a tract on the sound, and when Quakers, driven 
from Virginia, began to bend their steps thither, that the 
settlements attracted much attention. Berkeley, as governor 
of Virginia, and at the same time as one of the Carolina pro- 
prietors, was authorized to institute a government for the 
Albemarle plantations, and accordingly appointed to the ex- 
ecutive post William Drummond, a Scotchman, afterward 
so prominent, in Bacon's Rebellion. As Drummond was a 
man who believed in popular representation, an assembly was 
readily formed, and the few settlers permitted to manage their 
affairs without unnecessary dictation. 

More than a hundred miles to the southward, near the 
mouth of Cape Fear river, a colony from New England also 
established itself in 1663, having obtained the title to a small 
tract of land by purchase from the Indians. But the soil 
around Cape Fear was neither suitable for grazing nor for 
agriculture, for which purposes it had been designed to be 
used ; and hence the settlers, after being obliged to solicit 
help from Massachusetts, in a few years deserted the place. 

Strangely enough the same unattractive locality was selected 
in 1665 by planters from Barbadoes, who purchased a tract 
32 miles square, from the Indians, quite near the New Eng- 
land settlement. Sir John Yeamans, one of the planters, 
was appointed "by the proprietors governor of the province of 
'•'Clarendon," which extended from Cape Fear to the San 
Matheo or Port Royal. The colonists employed themselves 
in making boards, shingles and staves, which they shipped to 
the Barbadoes ; but although the place flourished for awhile, 
having a population of several hundred persons, it did not 
continue a permanent settlement. 

About the time that Yeamans received his appointment 
(1665), the titled proprietors obtained a new charter from the 
king, extending the bounds of their grant so as to include 
the Chowan river and Albemarle settlements on the north, 

H* 



178 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1665 

and Spanish St. Augustine on the south, and reaching back 
all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The privileges at the same 
time conferred, were as ample as the proprietors could have 
possibly desired — giving them power to establish manors and 
baronies and orders of nobility — to levy troops, build fortifi- 
cations, and make war: in short, a feudal seignory subject to, 
but not controlled by, the crown. 

To frame a constitution in accordance with and worthy 
these high powers and privileges, the Earl of Shaftesbury, the 
most able of the eigiit corporators, called to his assistance the 
philosopher, John Locke. The predilections of Shaftesbury 
and Locke, both strongly favored the prerogatives of the no- 
bility. Professing to believe that in the potent hands of the 
aristocracy, the liberties of the people at large would be best 
guarded against kingly assumption on the one hand, and 
plebeian intermeddling on the other, these law-makers were 
clearly no friends to equality of representation, which is the 
only assurance of stability of government. The powerful 
intellect of Locke studied and sifted the methods of the past 
to construct his ideal ; but the ideal, when worked into shape, 
was altogether impracticable, and the New World would not 
receive it. Understanding the views of class-privilege enter- 
tained by Locke and Shaftesbury, we have the key by which 
to interpret the "model constitution." 

The immense extent of territory comprised in the grant 
was to be divided into counties, each containing 750 square 
miles. To each county there was to be assigned an earl or 
landgrave and two barons, who together were to possess one- 
fifth of the land in the county ; another fifth was to be re- 
served for the lords-proprietors ; and the remaining three-fifths 
might be held by the people or lords of manors. The right 
of franchise could be held only by freeholders, possessing at 
least 50 acres ; the minor tenants, whose limited means 
obliged them to pay a rent, not only had no right to vote, 



i66s] QUAKER SETTLEMENTS OF ALBEMARLE. 179 

but were placed under the "jurisdiction of their lord, with- 
out appeal." The executive and judicial powers were entirely 
controlled by the proprietors, the eldest of the eight being 
the president, with the title of Palatine. The grand council 
or parliament of fifty, admitted 14 commons, but these, to be 
eligible, must each own at least 500 acres j the rest of the 
body was to be made up of the proprietors (or their deputies), 
the landgraves, and the barons. Thus the legislative power 
was also, by this device, placed out of the reach of the people 
at large. All sects were to be tolerated, but it was added, 
the following year, that the English Church should be the 
national religion, and be maintained by the colonial grants. 
We will presently see what reception the people in the wilder- 
ness gave to this " Grand Model," as it was derisively called. 

THE QUAKER SETTLEMENTS OF ALBEMARLE. 

While the constitution for Carolina was being thus labo- 
riously marked out, the Albemarle colonists were pursuing the 
peaceful tenor of their way, and craving no more elaborate 
form of government than the plain and sensible one which 
they already possessed, to wit, a worthy governor (Stevens), 
his council, and an assembly of delegates chosen by the free- 
holders. They made but few laws, which sufficed tlieir simple 
requirements, while the cost of legislation was on an econom- 
ical basis, adapted to their limited resources. Little need 
then, for them, of earls, barons, lords of the manor and a 
grand parliament, with a long train of onerous expenses ! 
The colonists were a loyal, orderly and law-abiding people, 
but they resolutely refused to receive the new form of gov- 
ernment, inasmuch as the proprietors had stipulated that the 
existing one should not be interfered with. 

The Quakers — or, to call them by their proper name, the 
Society of Friends — were the first to organize meetings for 



I So HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1683 

worship in Carolina. William Edmundson, one of their 
ministers, seeking his exiled brethren on the Chowan, records 
that "he met with a tender people" there, who gladly re- 
ceived the truth, and that a quarterly meeting was established 
among them. Later in the same year (1672) it is related in 
the Journal of that faithful minister, George Fox, how he 
also, coming down from Virginia, held a meeting " about four 
miles from Nancemum water, which was very precious;" that 
after this the " way to Carolina grew worse, being much of it 
plashy, and pretty full of great bogs and swamps;" and that 
on his arrival he was kindly entertained by the governor and 
others, and satisfactory meetings were held, "the people 
being generally tender and open." The neighboring Indians 
also were' visited and the .Gospel of Peace proclaimed to 
them. 

Upon the death of Governor Stevens (1672), renewed 
efforts were made by the proprietors to introduce the consti- 
tution and to enforce the obnoxious navigation acts. Incon- 
siderable as was the commerce between the Albemarle planta- 
tions and New England, the traders of the latter country 
were unjustly obliged to pay a duty which was not required 
of the British merchant or ship-owner. The pacific princi- 
ples of most of the first North Carolina settlers, would have 
led them to seek redress in a more quiet way than that which 
was actually adopted ; but by the influence of the New Eng- 
landers and of refugees from Virginia, who hurried into the 
colony after the rebellion of 1676, the collector of customs 
and the deputies appointed by the proi)rietors, were impris- 
oned, and the old government restored — happily without 
bloodshed. 

Five years of partial tranquillity had prevailed at Albemarle, 
when, in 1683, arrived Seth Sothel, who had purchased the 
right of Lord Clarendon, one of the proprietors, and had also 
been appointed governor by that body. But Sothel found that 



1670] THE SETTLERS AT CHARLESTON. iSl 

the constitution and the navigation act continued to be as 
obnoxious to the colonists as before, and having no means to 
enforce them, he turned his attention to his own private gain, 
exacting unjust fees, seeking to absorb the Indian traffic, and, 
by other rapacious devices, showing himself unfitted for the 
executive office. At the end of five years, the colonists con- 
cluded that Sothel had abided with and misgoverned them as 
long as patience would allow ; whereupon they deposed and 
banished him, and appealed to the proprietors for better treat- 
ment at their hands. 

THE SETTLERS AT CHARLESTON. 

Early in 1670 came to Carolina the first colony sent out by 
the proprietaries: three ship-loads of emigrants under Wil- 
liam Sayle, the appointed governor, and Joseph West, the 
company's commercial agent. They entered at first the broad 
haven of Port Royal, where, more than a century before, the 
French fleet of Ribault had anchored ; but after a short delay 
there, they again made sail, and entered that fine harbor sixty 
miles to the northward, which receives the waters of the 
^Ashley and Cooper rivers. Those estuaries were then so 
named, in honor of the Earl of Shaftesbury. On the penin- 
sula formed by their confluence, but upon the rising-ground 
some distance back from the point, they selected the site 
for their town. Ten years elapsed before the point itself 
was definitely chosen as being much better adapted for the 
requirements of their commercial city, which they named 
Charleston. 

The colonists having quickly to decide as to their plan of 
government, quietly ignored the Model as unsuitable, and 
chose Sir John Yeamans, of Barbacloes, but latterly from 
Cape Fear, as their governor, together with twenty delegates 
to form an assembly. The council was composed of ten 

16 



l82 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1684 

members, chosen equally by the people and the proprietors. 
The government, therefore, was pretty fairly representative ; 
but Yeamans did not execute his trust to the satisfaction of 
either party. It is to him that the reproach attaches of bring- 
ing African slaves from Barbadoes. The dusky form of the 
negro bondsman was beheld at the very founding of the Pal- 
metto State ; and, since the climate was well adapted to the 
temperament of the race, they were imported much more 
rapidly into Carolina than they had been into the colonies 
to the northward. 

The Cavaliers, who scorned submission to a form of gov- 
ernment which threatened to deprive them of any one of their 
rights, did not scruple to establish a usage that crushed as with 
an iron heel every right of the African. Thus, there was one 
clause of the Model which found ready entrance, to wit, that 
" every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and 
authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion and religion 
soever." Their inconsistency in this respect, was akin to that 
of the Puritan magistrates in the raatter of religious intoler- 
ance. As to the Indians, who were principally clans of the 
Catawba tribe, they were treated even worse than in Virginia; 
for, being incited to war with each other, the colonists obtained 
possession of the captives and sold them as slaves to the West 
Indies. 

The mild climate of South Carolina early attracted emigra- 
tion from various quarters : Dissenters from England — Scotch 
Presbyterians and Irish Catholics — Dutch Lutherans from New 
York and from Holland — Calvinist Huguenots from France. 
The first company of the Scotch comprised a few families 
under Lord Cardross, who, in 1684, settled at Port Royal; 
but the Spaniards claiming that section as a dependency of 
St. Augustine, forced the immigrants to depart, and totally 
destroyed their settlement. The Huguenots, however, now 
flocked to Carolina in larc;e numbers. 



1 686] HUGUENOTS IN CAROLINA. 183 

The Edict of Nantes had for eighty years protected in their rights 
the Protestants of France ; but when, in 1685, Louis XIV. suc- 
cumbed to the papal influence and revoked the edict, the Hugue- 
nots began at once to abandon the kingdom. This was a result by 
no means desired by the king. He professed to have at heart the 
conversion of all his dissenting subjects, thousands of whom, indeed, 
met death on the gibbet, the rack and at the stake, as the reward of 
their steadfastness. Over half-a-million fugitives made their way 
to other countries, principally to Germany and England, and many 
of them being skilled artisans, as well as industrious and peaceable 
citizens, their loss was not a light one to France. Of those who 
crossed the Atlantic, some settled in New York and New England, 
but Carolina received the greater number. On the Cooper and the 
Santee rivers were their first habitations erected. 

Meanwhile, Yeamans, who remained chief magistrate but a 
short period, was succeeded (1674) by Joseph West, who 
held the ofiRce nine years. As in the Albemarle settlement, 
the same questions as to the proprietaries' rights and the navi- 
gation acts, continued in dispute ; but unlike the men of 
Albemarle, the Cavaliers and the governor were not them- 
selves a just-dealing people. Not only did they sell captive 
Indians as slaves, sending them from their homes to a life- 
long bondage in the Caribbean isles, but they also connived 
with the buccaneers who depredated upon the Spanish ports 
and commerce. Had they been good neighbors to the Span- 
iards, and refused intercourse with the plundering sea-robbers, 
it is not likely that Port Royal would have been disturbed. 
These acts were displeasing to the proprietors, who finally, in 
1686, made choice of James Colleton, a brother of Sir John 
Colleton, one of the eight, to be governor. He, they be- 
lieved, would be able to reconcile the differences between 
themselves and the uneasy colonists ; and having given him 
the title of landgrave, with an ample grant of territory, they 
despatched him upon his mission. 

By the time the landgrave arrived at Charleston, a new 
"parliament" had been formed. This body refusing to ac- 



l84 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [i6S8 

knowledge the constitution, Colleton at once excluded the 
refractory members; whereat a systematic opposition ensued 
betvveen the adherents of the proprietors and the chief body 
of the colonists. These imprisoned the governor's secretary, 
seized the records, and refused payment of their quit-rents. 
Colleton, in despair, issued a proclamation of martial law, 
calling out the militia, but no one responded ; while, at a 
meeting of the delegates, the landgrave was declared dis- 
franchised, and banished from the province. The colonists, 
carried away by the unreasoning heat of party-spirit, were 
more exacting than the proprietors. That there was a 
practical, as well as Christian way, to reconcile even such 
formidable differences, will appear when we again recur to 
the condition of the colony. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

NEW YORK— NEW JERSEY— NEW FRANCE. 

1664— 1686. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DUKE OF YORK. 

In the year 1664, the Duke of York, who afterward suc- 
ceeded to the Engh'sh throne as James the Second, became 
possessor of New Netherland. Sir Robert Nichols, one of 
the three commissioners appointed to receive the surrender of 
the Dutch, was the first English governor of the newly-named 
province of New York. As Long Island then contained a 
large proportion of the population, an assembly of deputies 
was called there, to whom Nichols submitted a body of laws 
for the colony's government. This code was known as the 
" Duke's Laws," and embodied many regulations as to taxa- 
tion, the established religion (to which all had to contribute), 
the courts, the militia (to which all males above the age of 16 
must belong), slaves and indentured servants, Indian affairs, 
etc. Owners of lands, having obtained their titles from the 
Dutch, were required to take out new grants : a regulation 
which secured to the governor no little profit in the matter 
of fees. 

Among the eight proprietaries of Carolina, were Sir George 
Carteret and Lord Berkeley. The king's lavish grant to the 
Carolina corporation was followed a few months later by a 
grant from the Duke of York to Carteret and Berkeley. I 
comprised that portion of the old province of New Nether- 

16* 185 



1 86 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1667 

land included between the Delaware river on the west, and 
the lower Hudson and the ocean on the east, and which was 
now called New Jersey — in compliment to Carteret, who had 
been governor of the small island of Jersey in the British Chan- 
nel. It is true, that all of this territory had, years before (in 
1634), been granted to Sir Edmund Ployden, and was called 
by him New Albion, but as he neglected to organize settle- 
ments, the grant became void. 

The proprietaries, Berkeley and Carteret, made liberal con- 
cessions to emigrants, who came in considerable numbers, 
principally Puritans, from Long Island and New England. 
No quit-rent for the land was to be required from the settlers 
for six years, that is to say, until 1670. Elizabeth-town, so 
named in honor of Lady Carteret, was chosen the seat of 
government; and at Bergen, Newark, Shrewsbury, and other 
places in the neighborhood of Raritan and Newark bays, set- 
tlements quickly arose. Nichols was much displeased when 
he heard that the Duke of York had given away the choicest 
part of his province, and created a separate government ; for, 
before being aware of the transaction, he had himself per- 
mitted settlers on the site of Elizabeth-town, to purchase land 
of the Indians. This "Elizabeth-town Purchase," as it was 
called, was the occasion of considerable litigation. Philip 
Carteret, a kinsman of Sir George Carteret, was appointed 
(1665) first governor of New Jersey. 

When the time came for tl>e payment of the quit-rents, 
there was a general refusal to accede to the claim of the pro- 
prietaries, many of the settlers alleging that it was sufficient 
that they had already once paid the Indians for the soil. 
Governor Carteret not being able to secure compliance with 
the law, returned to England. In the meantime (1667), Fran- 
cis Lovelace had succeeded Nichols as governor of. New 
York, and he too found himself tliwarted in the matter of tax- 
collecting ; for the Duke of York, without the concurrence 



1674] EAST AND WEST NEW JERSEY. 187 

of the assembly, having laid a heavy duty upon all imports 
and exports, a number of the towns sent in their protest — 
but the paper was ordered to be publicly burnt. 

These disputes, for the time, were brought to an unexpected 
termination by the appearance, in 1673, of a Dutch fleet be- 
fore Manhattan island ; for Holland and England were again 
at war. The summons to surrender was readily complied with, 
and the example as promptly followed by Long Island, New 
Jersey and the Delaware bay settlements. But upon the con- 
clusion of a treaty of peace between the two kingdoms, the 
American colonies were returned to their English owners, 
having been little over a year in possession of the Dutch. 
Major Edmund Andros appeared in New York as governor 
in behalf of the Duke of York. 

Andros was disposed to make arbitrary use of his position, 
again laying claim to the territory between the Hudson and 
Connecticut rivers. Not being successful in this attempted 
invasion, he had no difficulty in obtaining possession of the 
sparsely settled country between the Kennebec and Penobscot, 
where a fort was erected, and the country called by the name 
of Cornwall. Previously, that portion of the present state 
of Maine had been known by the Indian name of Sagadahoc, 
and for a number of years had been under the jurisdiction of 
Massachusetts. 

EAST AND WEST NEW JERSEY. 

New Jersey had been ten years an organized province, 
when, in 1674, the year of the treaty between England and 
Holland, Berkeley sold his half-share to Edward Bvllinge 
and John Fenwick, members of the Society of Friends. On 
the east of Delaware bay, near an old fort of the Swedes, 
Fenwick himself established a colony, and called the place 
Salem. To avoid troublesome questions of jurisdiction, it 
was decided to divide the jjrovince into two parts. The line 



1 88 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1677 

was drawn from the north-west corner of the state south- 
eastvvardly to Little Egg Harbor; in other words, from the 
locality of the present Port Jervis to Tuckerton, with Hights- 
tovvn at near the centre of the line. East Jersey thence be- 
came the separate property of Carteret, and West Jersey that 
of Byllinge and Fenwick. William Penn was largely inter- 
ested in amicably arranging the questions of dispute which 
arose between the various owners. 

Byllinge not being able to retain his property, it was divided 
into shares and sold for his benefit ; Penn and other Friends 
being the principal purchasers. Many of that denomination 
emigrated thither, with Thomas Olive and others, agents for 
the share-holders, and in 1677, Burlington on the Delaware, 
was founded. Several years later (16S1) Byllinge was ap- 
pointed governor. Tlie laws of the colony were founded on 
the principle contained in the message of the Quaker pro- 
prietaries to the emigrants: "We lay a foundation for after- 
ages to understand their liberty as men and as Christians, that 
they may not be brought into bondage, but by their own 
consent; iox we put the power in the people.^ ^ The " Conces- 
sions" agreed upon between the proprietaries and the settlers 
gave general satisfaction. 

A fair understanding was had with the Indians of the Dela- 
ware tribe. They, together with the Minsi or Minisinks of the 
upper Delaware valley, formed the two chief divisions of the 
Lenni-Lenape Indians — the latter a section of the great Algon- 
quin race. And since the settlers made no use of warlike 
weapons, peace and good-will prevailed, and a thriving com- 
munity of yeomen soon established homesteads and meeting- 
houses in the wilderness clearings. 

"You are our brothers," said the sachems, at the council in Bur- 
lington woods (1677), " and we will live like brothers with you. We 
will have a broad path for you and us to walk in. If an English- 
man falls asleep in this path, the Indian shall pass him by and say, 



l682] EAST AND WEST NEW JERSEY. 189 

' He is an Englishman, he is asleep, let him alone.' The path shall 
be plain ; there shall not be in it a stimp to hurt the feet.'''' Some 
years before Burlington was founded, a native while under the in- 
fluence of ardent spirits, obtained from the Swedes, had murdered 
one of the settlers. The Indians now requested an absolute pro- 
hibition of the sale of strong liquors, which was cheerfully complied 
with by the Friends, who were anxious to remove all " stumps," or 
stumbling-blocks, from the Indians' path. 

In East Jersey, Philip Carteret had come back as governor 
(1674), and though some trouble still continued about quit- 
rents, much more dissatisfaction was caused by the course of 
Governor Andros of New York, who would not permit vessels 
to land goods in New Jersey unless they had first paid duties 
to him, hoping by that means to prevent direct trade with 
England. Having succeeded in enforcing this rule, Andpos 
even claimed to have jurisdiction over East Jersey by virtue 
of his commission from the Duke of York. Carteret refusing 
to recognize his authority, Andros sent a squad of soldiers, 
who laid hold of the governor while in bed, and carried him 
over to New York. In addition to this, Andros claiming to 
act as governor of West Jersey, assumed control over Delaware 
bay, and demanded that duties be paid by all vessels entering 
those waters. Hence, it became necessary to submit the ques- 
tion of authority to arbitrators in England, and by them it 
was decided that the duke and his high-handed agent were 
in error. 

The firm, but respectful remonstrance presented by the Quaker 
proprietaries, resulting in the discontinuance of the customs-tax 
and the relinquishment by the Duke of York of all claim to West 
Jersey, exhibits what might probably have been accomplished iu 
Virginia by Nathaniel Bacon, had he used his fine talents in that 
direction instead of endeavoring to gain his end by the sword. 

Upon the death of Carteret (16S2), East Jersey being 
offered for sale, it became the property of an associated com- 
pany of twelve Friends, among whom were William Penn and 



ipo HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [16S5 

Robert Barclay, the Apologist — the latter being appointed 
governor, although not residing in the province. In Scot- 
land, the attempt of the royal house of Stuart to establish the 
Episcopal religion, had resulted in a severe persecution of the 
Presbyterians, who were now eager to find a safe asylum from 
their tormentors. The Friends, therefore, associating with 
themselves twelve others, mostly Scotch Presbyterians, a way 
of escape and of perfect freedom of conscience was offered 
to the oppressed, who, in large numbers embraced the favor- 
ing opportunity. One of the Scotch proprietors was the 
Earl of Perth, from whom was named Perth-Amboy, at the 
head of Raritan bay — a place which it was hoped would 
prove a commercial port even rivalling New York. Another 
was Lord Neil Campbell, who sent over a large colony 
(1684), and for a short time was governor, having succeeded 
Barclay. 

Andros having gone to England to answer the complaints 
against him in regard to usurpations in East and West Jersey, 
Thomas Dongan was sent out in 1683, instructed to call a 
representative assembly of the people such as they had been 
clamoring for. Two years later the Duke of York, by the 
death of his brother Charles II., became king of England, 
and, claiming jurisdiction over the province of New Jersey, 
and desiring to consolidate the colonies, he annexed it to 
New York. Nevertheless, the right of the proprietaries to 
the soil remained unimpaire 1. 

EXPLORATIONS OF THE FRENCH JESUITS. MARQUETTE. 

In chapter ix. an account was given of the establishment 
of Jesuit missions among the Hurons, and of the ruin that 
came upon that nation by the incursions of the Iroquois. 
Numbers of the conquered warriors had been allowed to join 
the Five Nations who comprised the Iroquois confederacy, 



i66S] EXPLORATIONS OF FRENCH JESUITS. 191 

and thither again came the missionaries, seeking them. They 
were not turned away. But when in 1656, a colony of French 
from Montreal, established themselves on the Oswego near 
the country of the Oneidas, the jealousy of the Indians was 
aroused, and the settlers and priests were obliged to depart. 
The Mohawks especially, rejoicing in the mighty weapons of 
war which they had recently obtained, manifested the greatest 
hostility toward the French intruders; and, sad to say, this 
revengeful spirit was freely encouraged by the Dutch colonists 
and their English successors. The spiritual welfare of the 
Indians weighed nothing against dominion and monopoly of 
trade — the prizes which the whites thirsted for. 

The condition of affairs in Canada had become so discour- 
aging that the "Company of New France," organized with 
such eclat by Cardinal Richelieu, was dissolved, and, in 1664 
the French West India Company, which had been formed for 
purposes of trade and settlement in certain islands of the 
Caribbean sea, was also intrusted by King Louis XIV. with 
the control of New France. A military force was at once 
sent over, and forts constructed at Sorel and Chambly (upon 
the river connecting Lake Champlain with the St. Lawrence), 
to hold the Iroquois in check. 

As an efficient ally and entering wedge, the Jesuits were 
encouraged to pursue their labors ; and not they only, but the 
Recollect friars, who, after a forty years' exclusion, were now 
allowed re-entrance. On the southern shore of Sault St. 
Marie, the outlet of Lake Superior — where Jogues had assem- 
bled 2000 Chippeways twenty-five years before — a mission 
was established (1668) by three adventurous priests, Mar- 
c]uette, Allouez, and Dablon. It was the first settlement of 
the whites in the North-west. Allouez had explored the 
soutliern shores of the great lake beyond, and had also heard 
of the mighty river that flowed toward the south. Along the 
shores of Lake Michigan, where Chicago, Milwaukee and 



192 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1673 

Other populous cities now stand, friendly visits were paid to 
the Indians and missionary stations were planted. 

Marquette, anxious to reach the great river, received offi- 
cial authority to undertake the exploration. With several 
companions — one of whom was Joliet, a trader from Que- 
bec — and accompanied by Indian guides, they entered the 
Green bay of Lake Michigan, and, at its south-west extremity 
passed into Fox river; thence by the chain of small lakes and 
a narrow portage, they came to the Wisconsin, down which 
they floated in their bark canoes to the "Father of Waters." 
At the portage, their Indian guides had deserted them, being 
afraid to risk an encounter with the hostile Dacotahs. Thus, 
in 1673, one hundred and thirty-two years after De Soto was 
buried beneath its waters, the Mississippi was re-discovered 
by the French Jesuits. 

Descending the majestic river nearly 200 miles, they landed 
at a village by the mouth of a stream, called by the Indians 
the Moingona, a name which, by the French, became altered 
into Des Moines. Thus Marquette and Joliet were the first 
white men who trod the soil of Iowa. Continuing their 
course, and noticing where the Missouri, the Ohio, and otlier 
large streams discharged their floods into the one mighty, 
swift-rolling tide, they finally came to the mouth of the Ar- 
kansas. Satisfied that the Mississippi found its outlet into 
the Gulf of Mexico, yet fearful of meeting with the Span- 
iards in that quarter, they turned their canoes up stream. 
With much labor they ascended as fa? as the mouth of the 
Illinois, and, rightly judging that its north-eastward course 
would bring them to Lake Michigan by a more direct route 
than that of the Wisconsin, they paddled up the former stream, 
whose heatiwaters nearly approach the lake. Much to their 
surprise they had met with very few Indians. The French 
occupation of the Mississippi Valley, they perceived, need 
meet with little opposition from the children of the forest. 



1679J LA SALLE. 193 

LA SALLE. AN IROQUOIS WAR. 

At the time of Marquette's and Joliet's discovery, the 
Count de Frontenac was governor-general of Canada. 
Near the eastern extremity of Lake Ontario, on the Canada 
side (where Kingston now stands), was built, in 1675, Fort 
Frontenac. Like the forsaken Oswego settlement to the 
south, it was intended to serve as a bulv/ark against the Iro- 
quois. An enterprising Frenchman, by name La Salle, 
educated as a Jesuit but turned fortune-hunter, was appointed 
to the command of this post, and, as a condition that he 
should discharge his duties acceptably, was granted a large 
tract of land adjacent, and the sole right of trade with tlie 
Five Nations. But La Salle, whose ardor appeared to be 
quite uncontrollable, refused to be confined by the walls of a 
fort, and accordingly, being desirous of completing the dis- 
covery of the Mississippi, he repaired to France, obtained 
the royal permit, and likewise the monopoly of trade in 
buffalo skins. 

Elated at his success. La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac, 
and, with some assistants and supplies, passed up Lake Onta- 
rio (1678), and around Niagara Falls into Lake Erie. Near 
where Buffalo now stands, the little bark " Griffin" was built, 
the pioneer of all the modern craft on those inland seas. 
Accompanied by Tonti, the lieutenant of his company, by 
Hennepin, a priest, and several Recollect friars. La Salle 
sailed westward, the summer of 1679, passed through the 
Strait of Detroit and Lake St. Clair into Lake Huron ; thence 
northward, the length of the latter, to the Strait of Mack- 
inaw. Here was the mission-station from which Marquette 
had started. La Salle kept on by Marquette's route to Green 
bay, where the Griffin, laden witli furs, was sent back, with 
orders to return quickly with supplies, to the south end of 
Lake Michigan. 

I 17 



194 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1684 

Unfortunately, the Grififin was wrecked. La Salle, in the 
meantime, had gone to the appointed rendezvous and built 
there a trading-post. Weary of waiting for the vessel, the 
disaster to" which he as yet knew nothing of, he and his men 
continued on their course to the Illinois river, and below 
the present Peoria built a second fort, called. Crevecoeur. 
From here La Salle with but three attendants madehis way 
back to Fort Frontenac, in order to hasten the forwarding of 
supplies, leaving instructions with Hennepin to explore the 
headwaters of the Mississippi. Hennepin and a companion 
accordingly descended the Illinois to its outlet ; then ascend- 
ing the Mississippi as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, returned 
by the Wisconsin and Fox river route to Green bay. Henne- 
pin, without reporting himself again at Fort Crevecoeur, went 
back to France, and published an account of his lake-and- 
river voyages. 

When La Salle returned from Fort Frontenac, he found the 
two posts at Miami and Crevecoeur deserted. The Iroquois, 
in addition to their former exploits, had recently driven south- 
ward the Guyandots and Shawnees of the Ohio river, leaving 
the way open to attack the tribes of the Illinois, and, in con- 
sequence of this war, Tonti and his men had fled in alarm 
to Green bay. I,a Salle, however, built another fort, and 
having obtained further assistance, constructed a barge, and 
descended the Mississippi to the Gulf. To the country on 
both sides of the river the name of Louisiana was given, in 
honor of the reigning French king; and La Salle, having 
taken formal possession of the same for his royal employer, 
returned by way of Quebec to France. 

Two hundred and eighty persons joined the new expedition 
which, in 1684, sailed with the design of planting a colony 
at the mouth of the Mississippi. There were priests and sol- 
diers, farmers and artisans, besides an ample supply of food 
and implements, that there might be no delay in establishing 



1684] AN IROQUOIS WAR. iq5 

homes and in beginning life in the New World under happy 
auspices. But sorrowful was the actual result : for, the voy- 
agers having missed the entrance of the river, passed to the 
westward, after a futile search, and landed somewhere on the 
Texas coast, where they built a fort. Having vainly en- 
deavored to reach the Mississippi by land, at last La Salle, 
with but sixteen men, took up his march for Canada, leaving 
the rest of the survivors, only twenty in number, at the fort. 
In a dispute or mutiny. La Salle was murdered by some of his 
men, a few only of whom were finally found by Tonti, who 
had descended the Mississippi in search of the commander. 
The men who had been left at the fort probably perished, for 
nothing was heard of them afterward. 

While these events were transpiring in the west, the French 
in Canada had become involved in a war with the Five Na- 
tions. At a council held at Albany in 16S4, those tribes had 
been met by Governors Effingham of Virginia, and Dongan, 
of New York, and, having professed peace for the English, 
they were then counselled not to treat the French also as 
brethren and Christians, but to let them feel the full weight 
of their enmity. Hence, when a messenger arrived imme- 
diately afterward from De la Barre, the French governor- 
general, his complaints were not heeded. 

De la Barre, with about 1500 French and Lidians, now 
crossed the east end of Lake Ontario, and disembarking, ad- 
vanced into the country of the Onoridagas — the central tribe 
of the Five Nations. But his men were so wasted by malaria 
contracted while on the shore of the lake, that they were glad 
to make peace with the Indians, without venturing the issue 
of a battle. Soon afterward, De la Barre was superseded by 
Denonville, whose army of French and allies advanced into 
the country of the Senecas. 

An infamous deed is connected with this invasion. Lam- 
berville, a French missionary among the Onondagas, was re- 



196 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1688 

quested to invite some of the Iroquois chiefs to a conference. 
The invitation was trustfully accepted ; but the warriors being 
surrounded were overcome, placed in irons, and sent to France 
to work in the galleys. Though Lamberville, the innocent 
occasion of this act of perfidy, might have properly looked 
for death at the hands of the savages, yet a chief who loved 
him well, furnished him with a guide, by whom he was led 
away to a place of safety. 

Denonville and his troops then overran the Seneca country, 
and at Niagara constructed a fort, that the French might 
better control the fur-trade of the Great Lakes. But as soon 
as Denonville withdrew from the interior, the Senecas in their 
turn threatened an invasion ; whereupon the garrison in alarm 
abandoned the fort (1688). The following year the Iroquois, 
burning with revenge, advanced to Montreal, killed 200 
persons and took prisoners as many more, spreading the ter- 
ror of their name far up and down the St. Lawrence. The 
evil deed of Denonville had produced a ripe harvest of ruin 
and wretchedness. 



CHAPTER XV. 

NEW ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES IL AND JAMES IL 

1660 — 1689. 



CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND. 

A NUMBER of those judges who had condemned Charles 
the First -to death, and who were known thereafter as the 
Regicides, were, at the Restoration, apprehended and hung. 
Others of them sought safety in flight. Three of these, 
Whalley, Goffe and Dixwell, escaped to New England. Dix- 
well settled at New Haven, and was not disturbed ; but 
Whalley and Goffe, for whose apprehension large rewards had 
been offered, were hotly pursued from one place of refuge to 
another, by Indians as well as by the English. Sometimes 
they lodged in houses, sometimes in the forest, in clefts of 
the rock and in caves, until at last they were offered shelter 
at the little hamlet of Hadley, in the valley of the Connec- 
ticut, near the base of Mount Holyoke. 

The younger Winthrop was chosen (1662) by the Connec- 
ticut colonists to obtain from the new king a charter. He 
was well adapted for the important service, being a man of 
much intelligence, of amiable address and gentle manners, 
who in his younger days had travelled extensively in Europe, 
seeking the society of men of learning and of piety. Subse- 
quently, as the founder of a State in the New World, he had 
given proof of his liberality of heart by refusing to assent to 
the persecution of the Quakers, begging of the other magis- 

17* 197 



ipS HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1664 

trates that they should beware of shedding the blood of those 
who were sufferers for conscience' sake. We have also seen, 
that, mainly by his mediation, the occupation of New Neth- 
erland by the English in 1664, was accomplished without 
strife, and the rights of the residents fully protected. For 
his services in securing to Connecticut so great a boon as a 
charter which conferred all the privileges of self-government 
which they desired, the grateful inhabitants annually elected 
him their governor for the space of fourteen years. 
. Notwithstanding some opposition and clashing of interests 
at first, the New Haven settlements, by the able and concili- 
atory endeavors of Winthrop, became merged (1664) with the 
larger, Connecticut colony ; and henceforth, as one State and 
under one charter, they progressed happily together. The 
population steadily increased ; good rulers were chosen ; the 
interests of religion and education were fostered. The colo- 
nists were a people of frugal habits, chiefly husbandmen, who 
occupied farms not too extensive to be well cultivated ; and, 
inasmuch as the power of government was under their own 
control, the expenses of administering the same were regu- 
lated so as not to become a burden. They were fortunately 
exempt from the high-proprietary system of Carolina and 
Virginia, which was the occasion of so much discontent in 
those provinces. The whole annual expenditure of the Con- 
necticut government, was not equal to the salary exacted by 
Berkeley alone for his bad rulership of the Virginia planters. 
Rhode Island was equally successful with Connecticut, in 
obtaining from King Charles a liberal charter; and it was 
similarly fortunate in having good men to represent its cause to 
royalty. Roger Williams and John Clarke of Rhode Island, 
were, like Winthrop of Connecticut, fully persuaded that any 
infringement upon the rights of conscience was certainly not 
pleasing in the Divine sight. The following is the clause in 
the charter — obtained in 1663 by Williams and Clarke — which 



1 67 1] CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND. 199 

affirms equality of religious rights: "No person within the 
said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, 
punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any difference 
in opinion in matters of religion; every person may at all 
times freely and fully enjoy his own judgment and conscience 
in matters of religious concernments." 

■ In 1671, eight years after the charter had been obtained, 
one of its provisions was seriously infringed by the passage 
of a law by the assembly, declaring that any one who should 
speak at a town meeting against the payment of certain assess- 
ments, would be liable to a severe penalty. In the next year, 
George Fox, who, in pursuance of a religious concern had 
come from England, happened to be in Rhode Island. It 
was just previous to that visit to Nansemond and Albemarle 
which has already been spoken of. The blessings of a good 
government, and the duty of well-intentioned people to pro- 
vide the same, were truths very clear to the mind of the 
sturdy Quaker ; for nothing could be plainer than that if the 
wicked and the unjust were allowed to rule, crime would of 
necessity increase, and souls be lost at a faster rate than the 
agencies for good could save them. Hence Friends were ad- 
monished by Fox to be diligent in securing "guards against 
oppression," and in instructing and supporting all the people 
in their rights. The election resulted in the choice of magis- 
trates opposed to the obnoxious law, and in consequence the 
former freedom of debate was restored. 

Although not politicians by choice, yet the necessity laid upon 
them through a sense of duty, appears to have brought the Friends 
of those days frequently into prominence in civil life. On behalf 
of liberty of conscience and enlightened government, William Penn, 
a few years later, gave advice similar to that of George. Fox : "Your 
well-being," he says, in his forcible appeal to the electors of Eng- 
land, "depends upon your preservation of your right in the govern- 
ment. You are free : God, and nature, and the constitution, have 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1646 

made you trustees for posterity. Choose men who will, by all just 
and legal ways, firmly keep and zealously promote your power." 
Nevertheless, the scruples of Friends as to oaths and against taking 
part in war, have debarred them for the most part from accepting 
political office. 



JOHN ELIOT. THE PRAYING INDIANS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

John Eliot, who is also known in New England history by 
the title of the "Apostle to the Indians," was educated at 
an English university, where he manifested a special fondness 
for the study of the languages — a disposition of mind which 
greatly influenced his future pursuits. Coming to Boston but 
a year or two after it was founded, Eliot presently became 
interested in the Avelfare and education of the Indians, whom 
he was strongly inclined to believe were the descendants of 
the lost tribes of Israel. In 1646, he began to preach to the 
Indians of Nonatum, a village ten miles west of Boston ; and 
here was established the first civilized Christian settlement of 
natives in the English colonies of America. 

Eliot was ably assisted in his work by Waban, one of the 
chief men of the tribe. Through their endeavors, the In- 
dians were instructed to improve the construction of their 
huts; to build stone walls and dig ditches; and to abide by 
rules which were drawn up for their government. It was in- 
tended, as far as practicable, to bring the Indians into well- 
ordered towns, where they should be regularly employed in 
arts and trades, and where a proper management of their 
civil affairs should go hand in hand with religious improve- 
ment. Great opposition was experienced from most of the 
sachems and the powows or priests ; the latter well-knowing 
that their previous juggling rule over the spiritual interests 
of their subjects must be weakened or entirely lost by the 
change. 

Encouraged by some moderate contributions of iiioney from 



i674] JOHN ELIOT. 201 

England, an entirely new village was built at Natick, eight 
miles west of Nonatum, where there was more room for the 
development of agriculture and for the planting of orchards. 
In all, seven of these villages of the "Praying Indians" (so 
they were called) were organized around Boston. 

Eliot's plan of government for the Indians was that " they 
were to be wholly governed by the Scriptures in all things, 
both in church and state; the Lord should be their law-giver, 
their judge, and their king;" and accordingly he began to 
divide them as were the Israelites in the wilderness, with 
rulers over hundreds, over fifties, and over tens. Subse- 
quently, however, there was a court appointed to be held 
among the villages, presided over by a magistrate chosen to 
act with the Indian rulers. The first of these magistrates was 
Daniel Gookin, an upright and intelligent man, whose zeal 
for the natives, like that of Eliot's, exposed him to much 
opposition and derision from many of the colonists, who de- 
nied that the experiment could be a success. 

In the meantime Eliot toiled on undaunted, and, having 
mastered the structure of the language, began the arduous 
task of translating the New Testament into the native dialect. 
The book was printed in 1661 ; the Old Testament followed 
two years later, and, after that, there were printed sundry 
religious books and a grammar. In the work of publishing, 
the translator was materially aided by an Indian called James 
the Printer, who discharged the duties of proof-reader and 
pressman. 

Within the jurisdiction of Plymouth colony also, several 
settlements of Praying Indians were established on the islands 
of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and on the promontory 
of Cape Cod. These were placed under the care of Thomas 
Mavhew, whose family, for the space of five generations (176 
years) continued their useful labors. In 1673 and 1674, Eliot 
and Gookin visited the country of the Nipmucks, about 50 



202 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1674 

miles south-west of Boston, and there organized seven other 
communities, known as the " new praying towns." A year 
later, when the disastrous Indian war broke out, there were 
probably about 3500 natives in Massachusetts and Plymouth 
who had been brought under the direct care of the whites. 

Altliough the selling of spirituous liquors to the Indians was for- 
bidden by law in Massachusetts, the prohibition was openly evaded. 
Gookin says that drunkenness could not be charged to the Indians 
before the whites came to America, and adds: "The English in 
New England have cause to be greatly humbled before God, that 
they have been, and are, instrumental to cause these Indians to 
commit this great evil and beastly sin of drunkenness." His testi- 
mony on this point is confirmed by Heckewelder, who says : " The 
Mexicans have their pulque and other indigenous beverages of an 
inebriating nature ; but the North American Indians, before their 
intercourse with us commenced, had absolutely nothing of the 
kind." 

KING PHILIP'S WAR. 

First to welcome the Puritan pilgrims when they landed at 
Plymouth, had been Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoags. 
When Roger Williams, driven into exile by the stern decree 
of these Puritan colonists, wandered forth alone and in mid- 
winter into the gloomy forest, the wigwam of the same Massa- 
soit afforded shelter to the destined founder of Rhode Island. 
But now the old chief was dead. Warasutta, or Alexander, 
the elder son, had been accused of plotting with the Narra- 
gansetts, and, while on the journey to Boston to answer the 
charge, fell sick of a fever and died; and his brother Meta- 
COMET, or Philip, ruled in his place. 

Year by year the settlers, at a trifling cost, had possessed 
themselves of the Indian lands, until at last the Wampanoags 
found that their once broad domain had narrowed to the little 
peninsulas about Mount Hope bay, east of the great bay of 
Narragansett. A feeling of mutual distrust prevailed, for the 



1 67 5] KING nil LIP'S WAR. 203 

Indians were irritated by the loss of their hunting-grounds 
and their present state of subjection to the English ; while 
the latter, viewing the discontent of the red men with sus- 
picion, were ready to charge them with all manner of dark 
designs. The peace which had lasted nearly forty years since 
the Pequods were crushed, was about to be broken. 

A historian, by no means friendly to the Indians, observes of this 
war: "There was too much of positiveness and arrogance in the 
Englishman's way of asserting his claims, even when those claims 
were in every respect moderate and equitable ; and his kindness, 
even when most cordial and beneficent, wore a mien of condescen- 
sion and pity." Penn's successful treatment, the same as the ap- 
proved method of the present day, could not have been possibly 
attainable, without a truthful exhibition of Christian candor and 
meekness. Hence, while it is admitted that Philip and his warriors 
were much to blame for their behavior, yet the odium of this savage 
war will always rest with the Puritans, because it is evident that 
many of them had not manifested that forbearance and conciliation 
which their profession of a purer religion than that of the natives 
called for. 

The immediate cause of the war was the circumstance that 
information had been given to the colonists by an Indian, 
that a combination of the tribes had been formed for the pur- 
pose of recovering their liberty and lands. The informer 
was murdered by some of the Wampanoags, while the mur- 
derers in their turn were seized, and, having been tried by a 
jury, partly of Indians, were convicted of the deed and hung. 
It has been strongly asserted that the charge of a conspiracy 
was untrue, but whether such was the case or not, the Indians, 
with "King Philip" as their leader, prepared to wreak their 
revenge. Canonchet, the son of Miantonomah, chief of the 
Narragansetts, and Wetamoo, the widow of Wamsutta, entered 
into the league — the Indian Revolution of 1675. 

Driven from Mount Hope by the militia of Massachusetts 
and Plymouth and their Mohegan allies, Philip and his war- 



204 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1676 

riors, having burnt the villages of Dartmouth and Taunton 
and butchered many of the inhabitants, fled westward to the 
country of the Nipmucks. In the valley of the Connecticut 
there were at that time, within the Massachusetts border, six 
settlements of the whites; and of these, Northfield, Deerfield 
and Springfield were set on fire, while Hatfield, Hadley and 
Northampton, though assaulted, escaped destruction. Near 
Deerfield, the little stream called Bloody Brook commemo- 
rates the massacre of over a hundred farmers and militia, who 
were carrying their harvested grain to the lower towns. The 
Indians did not enter the borders of the Connecticut colony. 

When winter approached, the colonists having appointed 
JosiAH WiNSLOW, the governor of Plymouth, their com- 
mander, penetrated into the country of the Narragansetts on 
the west of the bay of that name. Canonchet and his tribe 
had fortified themselves in a palisadoed enclosure, situated on 
a rising ground in the midst of a swamp, and not far from the 
fort where the Pequods had met their signal defeat. In the 
same way were the Narragansetts now to fall. Their assailants 
suffered great loss before an entrance to the fort could be 
effected, but that point gained, the Indians were shot down 
by hundreds, their wigwams set on fire, and great numbers, 
especially wome'n and babes, perished in the flames. In this 
awful battle, known as the Swamp Fight, nearly a thousand 
warriors were supposed to have been slain ; of the English, 
one-fourth that number were killed and wounded. 

East of the six Massachusetts settlements on the Connecti- 
cut, there was a forest country unoccupied as yet by the Eng- 
lish, except at one point — the village of Brookfield. This place 
had been set on fire early in the war, and now with the open- 
ing of 1676, many settlements nearer to Boston, as Lancaster, 
Sudbury, Andover, etc., were sacked and burned. Even Ply- 
mouth was attacked ; and in Rhode Island, Providence, War- 
wick and numerous other places were fired. The dwellers in 



1676] KING PHILIP'S WAR. 205 

lonely habitations by the forest-side, were kept in a constant 
state of excitement and dread, their fears too often destined 
to be terribly realized. The magistrates, in the meantime, 
had levied additional recruits, who, being aided by the Mohe- 
gans, and by Ninigret, sachem of the Niantics, the Narra- 
gansetts were pursued, and Canonchet their chief was cap- 
tured. Being given up to his bitter enemies the Mohegans, 
he met with the same fate at their hands as did his father 
before him. 

The Nipmucks of the "new praying towns" mostly joined 
the hostile Indians. The converts on Cape Cod and Martha's 
Vineyard did not unite with their brethren in the war; but 
many of those around Boston were persuaded to do so, some 
espousing the cause of Philip, and others taking part with the 
colonists. Thus the lessons of love and good-will which had 
been taught them, were greatly marred in practice ; their vil- 
lages were broken up ; and the converts who remained were 
discouraged and weakened in faith. A number of the non- 
combatant Indians, having been brought to trial upon a charge 
of being concerned in murdering several persons near Lan- 
caster, Eliot and Gookin (who believed the allegation to be 
false) were treated with suspicion and reviling by the colo- 
nists because they took the part of the Indians. Several 
hundred of them were removed to Deer island, in Boston 
harbor, where they experienced much unmerited privation. 

Among numerous instances of harsh treatment which happened 
to these Indians on account of false accusations, was the result 
which followed the burning of a barn at Chelmsford — the act of 
some members of a hostile tribe. The exasperated settlers went 
to a village of Christian Indians, and, having called them to come 
out of their wigwams, fired ujion the innocent and imsuspectiiig 
natives, killing one and wounding five others. Dismayed at this 
brutal attack they fled far into the forests, and were only induced 
to return when winter apj^roached aiid starvation threatened them. 
"We are not sorry," they said to the messengers who sought them, 
18 



2o6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1676 

" for what we leave behind ; but we are sorry that the English have 
driven us from our praying to God, and from our teacher. We did 
begin to understand a little of praying to God." 



The war was finally concluded by the death of Philip, 
who, having returned to Mount Hope, was surrounded by a 
scouting party led by Captain Benjamin Church, and shot 
dead in his effort to escape. Philip's only son, the last of 
the family of Massasoit, was sent as a slave to Bermuda. 

Let us now see what was the cost of this war to the whites. 
Of the eighty or more towns in Massachusetts and Plymouth, 
ten had been totally destroyed, while forty had been more or 
less damaged by fire. About 600 men, of military age, had 
been killed, or were taken prisoners and never again heard 
of. The debt incurred by Plymouth colony was believed to 
have exceeded the value of all the personal property of its 
people. The Praying Indians, with great labor had been 
brought to the threshold of the Christian faith, to find that 
many of its professors were not themselves led by its persua- 
sive teachings; being, when aggrieved but too ready to cite 
for their warrant, the Jewish maxims of war, while denouncing 
their barbarian enemies as very Philistines. 

But the contest, unfortunately, also extended to the prov- 
inces east of the Merrimac. The state of Maine, which at 
present is comprised between the Piscataqua river on the west 
and the St. Croix on the east, was at that time divided into 
three sections, under as many different governments. The 
territory between the St. Croix and the Penobscot, although 
claimed by the English, was considered by the French to be 
part of their Acadie; from the Penobscot to the Kennebec 
was the district of Cornwall, held as a tributary province by 
Governor Andros for the Duke of York ; from the Kennebec 
to the Piscataqua, was the proper colony of Maine, being 
under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, as was also the adja- 



167S] KING PHILIP'S WAR. 207 

cent colony of New Hampshire. In the latter territory the 
sagamore Passaconavvay, and after him his son Wannalancet, 
always manifested a friendship for the English. The natives 
of Maine and Cornwall had experienced much unjust treat- 
ment from a number of the rude-mannered settlers, so that 
upon intelligence reaching them of the successful war of Philip 
and his allies, they too entered upon the same career of 
revenge. 

In a very short time all the Cornwall habitations were 
broken up and the settlers either killed or driven away. Many 
of the fugitives having found refuge on Monhegan and other 
islands, a vessel sent by Andros conveyed them to a place of 
safety. In Maine and New Hampshire, nearly one-half the 
settlements were destroyed, and the loss of life was greater 
in proportion than it had been in Massachusetts, for the In- 
dians readily obtained arms and ammunition from the French 
on the east of the Penobscot. Major Waldron, a native of 
Dover, was commissioned by the Boston authorities to carry 
on the war. 

There came to Dover a body of 400 natives to treat for 
peace. Waldron proposed to the Indians to engage in a sham 
fight ; but having induced them to discharge their fire-arms, 
his troops surrounded the natives and made them prisoners. 
Allowing half of them to depart, the rest he sent captives to 
Boston, alleging that they were peace-breakers and murderers. 
The most of these were transported as slaves to the West 
Indies. At the mouth of the Kennebec, Waldron built a fort 
and appointed a meeting with a number of the sachems. 
Having discovered some lances in one of the canoes, the 
whites professed to mistrust the purpose of the Indians, and 
thereupon attacked and killed ten of the emissaries. Tlie 
war began again with renewed fury and havoc, and continued 
until the spring of 1678, when a treaty was made at Casco 
with Squando, sagamore of the Tarrantines, and other chiefs. 



2o8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1684 

by which the English agreed to pay the Indians a regular 
annuity in corn. 



THE COLONIAL CHARTERS DEMANDED. ANDROS, GOVERNOR 
OF NEW ENGLAND. 

About the time that the war terminated in Massachusetts, 
but while it was yet in progress beyond the Merrimac, King 
Charles sent over a commissioner, Edward Randolph, to inquire 
into the condition of the New England colonies, with the object 
in view of assuming the direct government of those provinces 
by recalling their charters. Royalty complained of colonial 
independence of action, not only because the crown had not 
been called upon to furnish aid in the late war, but because 
the colony had exercised powers not belonging to it. The 
jurisdiction of Massachusetts over Maine and New Hampshire 
was denied as not being in accordance with the intent of its 
charter; but Massachusetts purchased (1677) the old Gorges 
claim and thus became proprietary of Maine, and appointed 
its magistrates. The Mason claim for New Hampshire, how- 
ever, was annulled by the crown. Being organized as a royal 
province (16S0), Edward Cranfield was appointed its gov- 
ernor ; but his measures were very unpopular with the colo- 
nists, and after serving four years he was recalled at his own 
request. 

In Massachusetts, the royal proceedings caused great dis- 
content. Randolph, in the interest of the king, went back 
and forth from England to the colony, and finally appeared 
with a writ by which the colony was arraigned to answer before 
an English court the charges against it, and to submit to an 
alteration of its charter. This the commissioners for the 
colony refused to do, whereupon, in 16S4, the court decided 
that tlie charter of Massachusetts was forfeited. Two years 
later appeared Sir Edmund Andros, appointed to be governor 



1689] ANDROS, GOVERNOR OF NEW ENGLAND. 209 

of all New England, from Long Island Sound to the borders 
of the French province of Acadie. Forcible entrance and 
toleration were secured by the governor for the established 
Episcopal religion of England. His arbitrary rule and that 
of Randolph, his secretary, occasioned the same grievous 
complaints as those which had already broken out in New 
York and New Jersey. It will be remembered that upon the 
cession of New Netherland, the English owners declared that 
the Dutch land-patents must be superseded by new ones. 
This rule was applied in Massachusetts, the court fees at the 
same time being increased enormously : so that Andros not 
only imitated the example of Nichols, but very much ex- 
ceeded it. 

Rhode Island, after some demur, also gave up its charter. 
Andros, anticipating more resistance from Connecticut, pro- 
ceeded thither with a small armed force. While the subject 
of his errand was being earnestly debated in the assembly- 
room, night had come on. Suddenly the lights were extin- 
guished, but when they were re-lit, the charter was gone. It 
was hidden in the hollow of an oak, yet notwithstanding its 
abstraction Andros assumed the control of the colony. The 
commission of Dongan, governor of New York, being like- 
wise revoked, Andros finally added to his prior dignities the 
governorship of that province as well as of New Jersey. 

But when, in the spring of 1689, the stirring news was re- 
ceived at Boston that James the Second was an exile, and that 
William, Prince of Orange, and Mary, his wife, were the 
ruling sovereigns of England, Andros, Randolph, and about 
fifty of their retainers were placed in close confinement, and 
the people again came under the old charter. The same 
revolution was also peacefully accomplished in the other New 
England colonies; but in New York, Maryland and Virginia 
much more opposition was manifested. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

1681 — 1692. 



WILLIAM PENN AND THE ROYAL GRANT. 

William Penn was the only son of that Admiral Penn who 
had acquired celebrity as commander of the English fleet at 
the conquest of Jamaica, and also for the part he had taken 
in the subsequent war against the Dutch. A large sum of 
money was due from the government to the admiral, for 
arrearages of pay, and for money advanced by him to the 
naval service ; and it was in consideration of this claim that 
William Penn, several years after the death of his father, pe- 
tioned King Charles the Second for a tract of land on the 
Delaware river north and east of Maryland. After consider- 
ing the objections of Lord Baltimore, as proprietary of Mary- 
land, and of the Duke of York, as proprietary of New York 
and of the counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex on the 
Delaware, the request of Penn was complied with, and in the 
3d month (March), 1681, he was granted a charter with full 
powers of government, for the tract of land thereafter to be 
called Pennsylvania. 

Penn's request for the ownership of a province was prom])ted 
by no selfish purpose of gain, but simply that he might have 
it in his power to offer to the persecuted people of all relig- 
ious creeds, and especially those of the Society of Friends, a 
safe refuge from their oppressors. He knew very well, by 



i6Si] WILLIAM PENN AND THE ROYAL GRANT. 211 

hard experience, not a {tw of the evils of illiberal and unjust 
government, and strong and sincere was his hope to exhibit 
to mankind a better example. Like metal that is tempered 
for excellent service by fire and frequent hammerings, so Penn 
had been well prepared for undertaking what he called the 
" Holy Experiment." 

Educated at Oxford, Penn had afterward visited various 
parts of Europe, becoming conversant with the customs of 
the people and the peculiarities of their governments ; but 
having on his return embraced the doctrines of the despised 
sect of Quakers, he was turned out of his father's house, and, 
at the early age of twenty-four, became a prisoner in the 
tower of London. Being released from confinement, he was 
arrested, under the persecuting "Conventicle Act," for 
merely speaking at a meeting; but his trial before the judge, 
which is memorable for his defence of the jury's right to 
freedom of decision, resulted in a verdict of not guilty. Yet 
he was again imprisoned half a year for a similar offence ; 
then being set at liberty, he travelled in Germany, and, later, 
became concerned in the affairs of East and West Jersey. 

Penn's purity of purpose is best set forth in his own letter to his 
friends, while preparing for the settlement and government of Penn- 
sylvania : "Because I have been somewhat exercised at times," he 
remarks, "about the nature and end of government among men, it 
is reasonable to expect that I should endeavor to establish a just 
and righteous one in the province, that others may take example 
by it : truly this my heart desires. For the nations want a /^vrt'- 
doit : and till vice and corrupt manners be impartially rebuked and 
punished, and till virtue and sobriety be cherished, the wrath of 
God will hang over nations. I do therefore desire the Lord's wis- 
dom to guide me and those that may be concerned with me, that we 
may do the thing that is truly wise and just." 

The territory granted by King Charles, was described in 
the charter as extending from a point on the Delaware twelve 



212 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1681 

miles above New Castle, up the course of said river to the 
beginning of the 43d degree of latitude, and westward five 
degrees of longitude. The southern boundary, however, set 
forth an impossibility, as it required a circle of twelve miles 
radius to be drawn, with New Castle at its centre, which circle 
should touch the beginning of the 40th degree of latitude; 
then to extend along that line to the western boundary. It 
would thus appear that the grant included three degrees of 
latitude — from the beginning of the 40th to the beginning 
of the 43d parallel — but so much territory could not be taken 
without including portions of previous grants to New York 
and to Maryland. For the northern boundary, the 42d line 
of latitude was settled on as meaning the "beginning" of the 
43d degree ; but, on the other hand. Lord Baltimore would 
not agree that the 39th line should mark the beginning of the 
40th degree. This inexactness of expression occasioned con- 
siderable dispute with Lord Baltimore, who likewise claimed 
the three counties on the Delaware ; but the latter were de- 
cided, by the English arbitrators, as forming no part of Mary- 
land. Many years elapsed before the boundary line between 
Maryland and Pennsylvania was finally adjusted. 

THE GREAT TREATY AT SHACKAMAXON. 

Penn now published an account of the province, offering 
lands for sale at the low price of forty shillings per hundred 
acres, subject to a quit-rent of one shilling per annum. At 
the same time, he cautioned people who might have intentions 
of removing, not to make the change rashly, but to first weigh 
well the inconveniences of life in a new world, and, in form- 
ing their plans, to consider the glory of the Almighty as 
paramount, that so His blessing might attend their honest 
endeavors. 

The testimony of one of the first settlers : " Our business here in 
this new land, is not so much to build liouses, and establish factories. 



l682] THE GREAT TREATY AT SHACKAMAXON. 213 

and promote trade and manufactories that may enrich ourselves 
(though all these things, in their due places, are not to be neglected) 
as to erect temples of holiness and righteousness, which God may 
delight in ; to lay such lasting foundations of temperance and virtue, 
as may support the superstructures of our future happiness, both 
in this and the other world. In order to these great and glorious 
ends, it will v^ll become, nay, it is the indispensable duty of all that 
are superiors amongst us, to make laws and initiate customs, that 
may tend to innocency and a harmless life, so as to avoid and pre- 
vent all oppression and violence either to man or beast ; by which 
we shall strengthen the principle of well-doing, and qualify the fierce, 
bitter, envious, wrathful spirit?" 

Upon the publication of Penn's proposals a great number 
of purchasers appeared, a body of whom, having obtained a 
tract of 20,000 acres of land, formed a company called the 
** Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania." William Mark- 
ham was sent out by Penn, as deputy-governor, in 1681 ; there 
being associated with him a number of commissioners who 
were instructed to hold a conference with the Indians. They 
bore a letter of greeting from the proprietary to the natives, 
in which he told them that, though the king of the country 
where he lived had given him the province, yet he desired 
only to enjoy it with their love and consent ; that he desired 
to win and gain their love and friendship by a kind, just and 
peaceable life ; and that he himself would shortly come, ai;id 
arrange everything, as he hoped, to their satisfaction. 

Accordingly, the following year (1682), Penn, accompanied 
by about one hundred persons, mostly of the Society of 
Friends, sailed in the ship Welcome for the capes of the Dela- 
ware, The Duke of York had previously assigned to him 
the "three Lower Counties," afterward the state of Dela- 
ware, bordering the west side of the bay. On the 27th day of 
the loth month (October) Penn landed at New Castle, and 
having summoned the people to the court-house, they all — ■ 
English, Dutch and Swedes — ^joyfully acknowledged his gov- 



214 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1682 

ernment. Assuring them of the continuance of their freedom 
and of entire liberty of conscience, and recommending them 
to live in sobriety and peace, he re-appointed the former 
magistrates, and, re-embarking, continued a little further up 
the river to Upland or Chester. 

At Chester an assembly was called, who 'passed an act of 
union, annexing the three Lower Counties to the chartered 
province of Pennsylvania, and accepting with some alterations 
a frame of government and code of laws which Penn had 
prepared in England, and had sent over the previous year by 
Markham. The Swedes deputed one of their number to ac- 
quaint him that "they would love, serve and obey him, with 
all they had," declaring, " it was the best day they ever saw." 
At Shackamaxon (in the present Kensington district of Phila- 
delphia), beneath a great elm by the river's side, was held that 
notable interview with the Indians, which is famed as the only 
treaty "between those nations and the Christians, which was 
never sworn to and never broken." The precise date of this 
treaty is uncertain. 

In tones of kindness and with benevolent aspect, Penn ad- 
dressed the sachems, telling them of the Great Spirit who 
made him and them and was the Ruler of all things in heaven 
and earth, and who, knowing his inmost thoughts, was aware 
that his heart's desire was to live in peace and friendship with 
the Indians, and to serve them to the utmost of his power. 
He told them that he and his friends came unarmed amongst 
them because it was not their custom to use hostile weapons 
against their fellow-creatures; for their object was not to do 
injury and thus provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. 
They were now met on the broad pathway of peace and good- 
will, so that no advantage was to be taken on either side ; but 
all was to be openness, brotherhood and love. 

He also assured them that they were not to be driven away 
from their lands nor molested in their lawful pursuits ; and in 



i682] PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED. 215 

case disputes arose between themselves and the settlers, they 
should be peaceably adjusted by a tribunal to be chosen equally 
by the English and Indians. Presents were given to the 
sachems, who, in return, handed back the peace belt of wam- 
pum. In conclusion, Penn told them that he would not call 
them children or brothers only, for often parents would whip 
their children too severely, and brothers would differ ; neither 
would he compare the friendship between them to a chain, 
which rain might rust, or a tree might fall upon and break; 
but he would esteem them as being of the same blood with 
the Christians — the same as though they were two parts of one 
body. Great were the promises which the red men heard, 
but never were they broken while the peaceful disciples of 
Fox and Penn had sufficient power in the government to 
secure a just and friendly conduct toward them. 

About five years after the "great treaty," a report spread that 500 
Indians had gathered on the Brandywine, with the intention of 
raising a general insurrection and cutting off all the English on an 
appointed day. The horrors of Philip's war in New England were 
fresh in people's minds, so that the dire rumor that spread on all 
sides created considerable alarm ; but a number of the Friends, 
conscious of their just dealings and honest intentions toward the 
natives, at once agreed to ride unarmed to the Brandywine and to 
know of the truth of the report. They found the old sachem lying 
quietly in his wigwam upon a sort of pillow, the women at work in 
the field, the children at play together. When informed of the report 
which had reached the settlement, the sachem was much displeased, 
and told the messengers that they might go home and gather their 
harvests in safety, for his heart harbored no enmity against the 
English. 

PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED. 

On the neck of land formed by the confluence of the 
Schuylkill river witli the Delaware, William Penn, in the 
latter part of 16S2, marked out th-e streets and bounds of the 



2i6 insrORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1686 

city of Philadelphia. The site of the city, which was pur- 
chased of three Swedes, the brothers Swenson, presented at that 
day, a high bold bank along the Delaware, fringed with a line 
of tall pine trees, and called by the Indians Coaquannock. 
In this bank, before any Houses were built, many of the first 
settlers dug caves and holes to reside in. The first native Penn- 
sylvanian of English parents was born in one of these burrows. 

The avenues of Philadelphia have a wide reputation for 
their regularity. Penn laid out a "High" street, running 
east and west from river to river, and a central "Broad" 
street running north and south at right-angles to the former, 
besides many parallel avenues. At the place of intersection 
of Broad and High streets were four open squares. There 
was also a large plat reserved in each of the four quarters. 
It was the design of its founder, that Philadelphia should be 
an open and healthy city, so far as his plans could accom- 
plish that purpose ; and with that intent he desired that 
"every house should be placed, if the person pleases, in the 
middle of its plat, as to the breadth way of it, that so there 
may be ground on each side for garden or orchards or fields, 
that it may be a green country town, which will never be 
burnt and always be wholesome." 

About a year after Penn's arrival, a number of German 
Friends from Kresheim, settled about six miles from Philadel- 
phia, at a place which they called Germantown. Many of 
the same society also came from Wales, and took up lands in 
the neighborhood of the city. In less than five years Phila- 
delphia gained more than did New York in half a century. 
Over twenty vessels arrived the first year, and within a brief 
time there were many habitations of settlers upon the Dela- 
ware, even as far as the falls at Trenton, near which was the 
proprietary's manor of Pennsbury. These all built without 
fear of molestation from the natives ; for, they said, " As our 
worthy Proprietor treated the Indians with extraordinary hu- 



i6S2] PIJILADELPHIA FOUNDED. 217 

manity, they became very civil and loving to us, and brought 
in abundance of venison. And whereas in other countries 
the Indians were exasperated by hard treatment, which hath 
been the foundation of much bloodshed, so the contrary 
treatment here, hath procured their love and affection." 

To the Free Society of Traders, in London, Penn wrote 
a fair account of the province, its climate, productions and 
native people. He counselled them not to abuse the Indians, 
but to win them with justice; praying that the hearts of all 
who came into those parts would incline them to show the 
natives that their claim of a greater knowledge of the will of 
God was not an idle boast, because, says Penn, " // were mis- 
erable indeed for tis to fall under the just eensiirc of the poor 
Indian conscience, ivhile 7ve make profession of things so far 
transcending.'^ Those words may be said to sound the key- 
note of the Quaker policy. 

For the settlement of disputes and the prevention of law- 
suits, three peacemakers or arbitrators were appointed for 
each county. Penn was offered a revenue from the imposition 
of a tax on exports, but this he would not agree to, although 
it was a custom commonly adopted by the colonial proprie- 
taries. Nevertheless, he had expended several thousand 
pounds sterling in rightly settling his province and in the 
payment and instruction of the Indians. In organizing the 
provincial government; in laying the foundation of its future 
great city ; in securing the good-will of the Indians, as well 
as of the Dutch and Swedes, Penn had been eminently suc- 
cessful : but the controversy with Lord Baltimore respecting 
the boundary line was not so readily settled. 

Immediately after Penn's arrival in the province, he had 
proceeded to Maryland to consult with Baltimore upon the 
running of their dividing lines; but the two proprietors were 
unable to agree. Again, Penn appointed a meeting at New 
Castle to which Lord Baltimore came, but he would not 
K 19 



2i8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1691 

acquiesce in Penn's suggestion that they and their councils 
should meet in separate houses in the town, and treat with 
each other by written memorials so as to prevent the mistakes 
arising from ill designs or slips of memory. Wherefore, to 
bring the dispute to a close by obtaining the decision of 
higher authority, Penn returned to England in the summer of 
1684, leaving the executive power in the hands of the council, 
of which Thomas Lloyd was the president. 

DISAGREEMENTS IN COUNCIL. 

It would have been better for the political tranquillity of the 
province had Penn remained there; for, many times during 
his absence of fifteen years, disputes arose in the council, 
which would readily have yielded to his firmness and fairness 
of purpose. The error seems to have been in lodging the ex- 
ecutive power in the council, thus having too many adminis- 
trators in the place of one. That body likewise, did not 
work harmoniously with the assembly, nor the latter with the 
members from the three Lower Counties. Lloyd, disliking 
his position, was excused from further service, and Captain 
John Blackwell was appointed by Penn as his deputy. The 
selection, however, was not a judicious one, for Blackwell 
was a man accustomed to the military service, and, as he 
utterly disagreed with the council, he was soon recalled. 
These disagreements were the occasion of much grief to the 
proprietary, who frequently addressed Lloyd and others of 
influence, urging them to "love, forgive, help and serve one 
another ; and let the people learn by your example as well as 
by your power, the happy life of concord." 

\\\ 1 69 1, shortly after Blackwell's return to England, the 
dispute between the province and the three counties so far in- 
creased, that the latter organized a separate assembly. Penn 
reluctantly confirmed Markham as the deputy of the new 



1691] DELAWARE. 219 

commonwealth of Delaware, while Lloyd accepted the same 
position in the province of Pennsylvania. The proprietary 
felt that he had no moral warrant, much as he loved unity, to 
prevent the separation. Lloyd and Markham, with their re- 
spective councils, joined in a letter to Penn, expressing satis- 
faction at the change, and announcing their intention to act 
jointly in some matters, as being both under the general gov- 
ernment of the proprietary. 

There arose at this time a schism in the religious Society 
of Friends at Philadelphia, which was considered as much 
more to be lamented than the division in the government. 
This trouble was brought about by George Keith, a Scotch- 
man, who had been surveyor-general of East Jersey, but was 
now master of the public school which had been already 
established at Philadelphia. 

Keith is described as a man of quick natural parts, very 
ready and able in theological disputations, but with an irrita- 
ble temper, and a disposition of mind not sufficiently tem- 
pered by Christian moderation. He had been a trenchant 
defender of the Society's principles, and had even visited 
New England as a champion of its doctrines against Cotton 
Mather and other ministers of the Puritans. Upon his re- 
turn, in an elated state of mind, he began to indulge in un- 
warranted accusations and unbecoming language, and was 
thereupon dismissed from the Society. Many persons agree- 
ing with his views, they set up separate meetings, styling 
themselves Christian Friends ; but their erratic leader presently 
went back to England, where he joined the National church 
and wrote many passionate things against his former associates. 

When Keith was found guilty by the grand jury at Philadelphia 
of " contempt of court," and was sentenced to pay a fine, the 
Friends forgave him the penalty lest it should seem to the general 
public that they had grown intolerant, and were persecuting any 
one because of difference of opinion. 



220 HISTORY OF 7I/E UNITED STATES. [1693 

Meanwhile, William Penn had been diligently employed 
in England, striving to relieve his fellow-members from the 
impositions and persecutions under which they still labored ; 
and, since he was high in favor with King James, he had 
been enabled for the most part to accomplish that object. 
But upon the accession of William and Mary, the fact of his 
friendship at the former court operated against him; so that 
his enemies, taking advantage of the unsettlement prevailing in 
the colonial councils, and putting the matter in the worst light 
possible, caused him to be deprived of both his provinces. 
Thus in 1693, eleven years after Philadelphia was founded, 
the English sovereigns issued a commission to Benjamin 
Fletcher, governor of New York, to take control of the 
provinces on the Delaware, which therefore became for a 
while re-united. 



chaptf:r XVII. 

THE COLONIES UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY. 
i68g — 1702. 



THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH COLONIES AT WAR. 

On a preceding page have been mentioned the unsuccessful 
attempts of De la Barre and Denonville, the French com- 
manders, to obtain control of the Niagara region and the Great 
Lakes, and to intimidate the tribes of the Iroquois league. 
With the English traders of Hudson's Bay on the north, and 
those of New York on the south, to compete with, the French 
became more and more concerned lest the lucrative fur-trade 
should be wrested from their grasp. They chiefly valued New 
France not for the possible products of its soil, but because 
the lakes and the river St. Lawrence were a highway of com- 
merce which their own pioneers had opened, and whose con- 
trol they were not willing to surrender to any other nation. 
Hence when war broke out between England and France, 
in 1689, the northern American colonies took part in the 
struggle, as having grievances of their own to settle. 

Baron Castin of Acadie had no difficulty in jjersuading 
the eastern Indians to resume the war against the New Eng- 
land settlements. Twelve years had elapsed since Waldron 
had dealt them those treacherous blows already related. That 
officer being yet at Dover in command of a garrison, a ])arty 
of th.e natives made an onslaught upon the place, killed or 
made prisoners about fifty of the inhabitants, and put Wal- 

19* 221 



2 22 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1690 

dron (now an old man of 80) to death with tortures. The 
village was then burned, as was likewise the fort which Andros 
had recently built at Pemaquid on the coast ; in short, all the 
settlements east of Casco bay to the Penobscot, were once 
again ravaged and broken up. 

There was no scruple on the part either of English Protes- 
tants or French Papists, against engaging the Indians to aid 
them in their sanguinary schemes. While French vessels 
cruised off the coast of New England, making many prizes, 
the Count de Frontenac despatched a war-party composed of a 
body of "converted" Indians, so called, and a few Frenchmen, 
to surprise Schenectady on the river Mohawk — the northern- 
most English outpost. Unguarded and unsuspicious of evil 
the inhabitants slept, when suddenly the terrible war-whoop 
was heard ; in a moment the doors were broken open, the 
women and children massacred and the village set on fire. 
Some were carried away prisoners, while those who escaped 
fled through a driving snow-storm toward Albany, enduring 
bitter sufferings ere that place was reached. It was surely 
not Christ's religion that these "converts" were being taught: 
but, were they or their teachers most guilty ? 

Frontenac's second war-party crossed the mountains (1690) 
from Canada to the upper Connecticut river valley, thence 
across the White Mountain region to the frontier village of 
Salmon Falls on the Piscataqua. As at Schenectady, this 
place also was taken by surprise, the men mostly murdered, 
and the women and children made captive. The houses, 
and the barns with cattle in them, were destroyed by fire. 
Then with their prisoners and spoils of war, the victors being 
joined by another party from Quebec, moved across to Casco 
in Maine. Fortunately, its inhabitants, by surrendering as 
prisoners of war, escaped the dreadful doom which had over- 
taken the other two places. 



1690] S/J? WILLIAM rillPPS. 223 

SIR ^VILLIAM PHIPPS. FLETCHER. BELLAMONT. 

Immediately after these onslaughts, New York and the New 
England colonies organized for a counter-attack on the settle- 
ments of the French. Massachusetts sent out a naval expe- 
dition under Sir William Phipps, a native of Pemaquid, who 
is celebrated as being one of 26 children borne of the same 
mother. Phipps sailed at once to Port Royal and the other 
Acadian settlements, which he plundered to an extent suffi- 
cient to pay all the expenses of the expedition. Meanwhile 
two English privateers from the West Indies appeared, and 
Port Royal was devastated a second time. 

At the accession of William and Mary, two years before 
this time, Jacob Leisler, a merchant of New York, supported 
by a faction, had been installed as governor of that province, 
a position which he still occupied. A land force was sent 
out by Leisler, which was joined by troops from Connecticut ; 
the whole being commanded by Fitz-John Winthrop, son of 
Connecticut's late governor. Part of these, with some Mo- 
hawks, marched against Montreal, but they were repulsed by 
Frontenac and his Indian allies. The other detachment, 
being wasted by smallpox, and lacking provisions, also re- 
turned. Upon the arrival of Colonel Henry Sloughter, 
appointed to the governorship by King William, Leisler, and 
his son-in-law Milbourne, were arrested for high treason, and 
their enemies being very bitter against them, they were con- 
demned to death on the gallows. 

Sir William Phipps, with a fleet of 35 vessels, ascended the 
St. Lawrence to Quebec, but being nine weeks on the voyage 
uj) the river, Frontenac had time to prepare for the attack 
of the English, who soon abandoned the enterprise. Captain 
Church, who had gained notoriety in King Philip's war, pro- 
ceeded against the Eastern Indians in Maine, and having 
taken some prisoners, men, women and children, put them 



224 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1697 

to death, as he declared, " for the sake of example." But the 
Indians remembered that they had not put to death those who 
surrendered to them at Casco, and now lost no opportunity 
to retaliate on the whites. All the towns of Maine suffered 
from their attacks, and many of them were abandoned. 

After this, Phipps having gone to England, returned, in 
1692, with a commission as governor. He also brought a new 
charter for Massachusetts, by which Plymouth colony, and 
Maine as far as the Penobscot, were united with the former 
under one jurisdiction. Toleration was expressly secured to 
all religious sects except Papists. The French at this time 
had recovered possession of Port Royal ; and the Eastern In- 
dians being supplied with arms and ammunition from that 
quarter, the frontier continued to be much harassed by their 
depredations. Phipps had little opportunity to take further 
part in the war, for, being accused of misdemeanor, he was 
summoned to England for trial. 

Fletcher having been appointed (1693) governor of the 
provinces of New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, a royal 
letter was sent to all the colonies except Carolina, urging 
them to furnish assistance in men or money for the defence 
of the northern frontier. The Friends in Pennsylvania, be- 
lieving all war to be unlawful, and being conscious that they 
themselves had treated both the Indians and whites as breth- 
ren, and had naught of enmity to fear, demurred making any 
appropriation. Fletcher wrote to them that he "hoped they 
would not refuse to feed the hungry and clothe the naked ;" 
meaning, as he explained, that they should conciliate the In- 
dians with presents, and not let them go over to the French. 
But he obtained from them no more than the grant of a small 
sum of money, which it was stipulated " should not be dipped 
in blood." This disastrous seven years' war was terminated 
in 1697, when the peace of Ryswick between England and 
France was proclaimed, by which it was agreed, so far as re- 



1699] BELLA MO NT. 225 

spected their American territories, that each should retain 
what it possessed before war was declared. 

The Earl of Bellamont, an Irish nobleman of affable 
address and popular manners, was sent over in 1698, as gov- 
ernor of both New York, and Massachusetts, — Pennsylvania, 
in the meantime, having been remanded to William Penn, its 
proprietor. New Hampshire, for forty years thenceforward, 
also continued to have the same governors as Massachusetts. 
Upon arriving in New York, Bellamont caused Fletcher to be 
sent back to England under arrest, as it was believed that he 
connived at violations of the acts of trade, as well as favored 
the buccaneers who still frequented the American harbors. 
Captain Kidd, who had been given command of a vessel 
specially fitted out to re-capture prizes which had been taken 
by the pirates, himself turned freebooter, and entered upon 
that bold career of robbery upon the high seas, which was 
only terminated by his death upon the gallows. 

In Boston, Bellamont became so much a favorite that the 
general court voted him the extravagant compensation of 
$7500 the first year, although under the old charter the gov- 
ernor's salary had been but a small fraction of that figure. 
But Bellamont died in 1701, at New York, whither he had 
gone to attend to the enforcement of the navigation acts. 
Laws favoring the execution of these acts were passed by 
Connecticut and Rhode Island. In the latter state, Samuel 
Cranston, who was chosen governor in 1698, was annually 
re-elected for twenty-eight years. 

William Penn, who had returned to his province in 1699, 
called an assembly which readily acceded to his wish, in pass- 
ing laws for the suppression of piracy and illegal trade. Soon 
afterward, he granted them a new "charter of privileges," 
by which the power of legislation was vested in a governor, 
and in an assembly to be chosen annually by the freemen of 
the province. 



226 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [i6S8 

Penn remained only two years in Pennsylvania; but before 
his second and last departure, he met in council the chiefs of 
the Five Nations, besides the Potomacs, the Susquehannahs 
and the Shawnees, and covenanted with them that there 
should be a firm anei lasting peace between both races, and 
that they should all live in true friendship and amity as one 
people. Regulations were adopted to govern their trade, and 
the former purchases of land were confirmed. Penn left the 
management of his estates and of the Indian matters, in the 
hands of James Logan, colonial secretary and member of the 
council. But the expenses attending the settling and im- 
proving of the colony were so heavy, that Penn was obliged 
to borrow several thousand pounds, and to mortgage his 
province for the debt. Delaware was quietly permitted to 
again form a separate government in 1702. In the same year 
East and West Jersey became united as a single province, 
with Lord Corxburv, Bellamont's successor, as royal gov- 
ernor. 

THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 

The six years from 16SS to 1693, were memorable in New- 
England history, not only on account of the unhappy war 
■which has just been related, but because of the prevalence of 
a popular delusion which has since been spoken of as the 
Salem witchcraft. 

The alleged witches were generally ill-favored or bad-tem- 
pered old women, who were believed to have made a bargain 
with the Evil One, — trading away their souls for the privilege 
of working mischief to their neighbors. By the Massachu- 
setts law, witchcraft, like murder and many other offences, 
was a capital crime, the warrant for which punishment they 
adduced from the Old Testament scripture, where it is de- 
clared, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Prominent 
in the belief in these supernatural manifestations were In- 



1692] THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 227 

CREASE Mather and his son Cotton Mather, Turitan 
clergymen of Boston. 

In the latter city, four children in one family began to be- 
have in a very singular manner: barking, purring, undergoing 
contortions, and seeming to become at times either deaf, blind, 
or dumb, or else crying out that they were being pinched, 
jerked about, and cut at. The ministers declared that the 
children were certainly bewitched ; for, precisely in the same 
manner, they said, had afflicted ones been tormented in Eng- 
land. An old Irish servant, living in the family, was fastened 
upon as being the culprit witch, and, upon trial, was declared 
guilty and speedily hung. Young Cotton Mather took the 
eldest of the "bewitched" children to his own house, and 
being duped by her artfulness, and witnessing many strange 
things, he believed them sufficiently wonderful to set forth in 
a book, which he presently published. 

Several years later (1692) the witch-distemper re-appeared ; 
this time at Salem village or Danvers, where two young girls, 
a daughter and a niece of the village minister, began to ex- 
hibit peculiar symptoms, very similar to those witnessed in 
the former case. Tituba, a servant of the family — an Indian 
woman, old and wrinkled — was pronounced to be the witch. 
A general fost and time of prayer were proclaimed by the 
ministers ; nevertheless the so-called witches and their victims 
so increased, that, in alarm, a magistrate's court was ordered to 
be convened in the village. Not only Tituba, but many other 
women of weak or fearful minds, were frightened into con- 
fessing that they were witches, who had signed the "devil's 
book" and been baptized by him. In a short time there 
were nearly a hundred persons confined in prison upon the 
charge. 

A special court for Witch Trials, presided over by Governor 
Phipps himself, was now ordered. Four sessions were held in 
four months, at which over fifty persons, most of them old 



228 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1692 

women, were convicted, and twenty of them were hung. 
Every day new accusations appeared. A second book pub- 
lished by Cotton Mather, called " Wonders of the Invisible 
World," contained triumphant accounts of the late trials and 
executions, and served to spread the excitement and terror 
broadcast. 

But the strange fever was destined soon to subside ; for, 
there having been accusations started against some persons 
of acknowledged excellent repute, the voice of reason and 
good sense began at last to be listened to. Some who had 
confessed to being witches renounced that admission as having 
been forced from them ; the court refused to convict those 
brought before it ; and finally, King William's veto of the 
witchcraft act put an end to the trials. 

MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. 

In the province of Maryland, the news of the accession of 
William and Mary created much agitation, the majority of 
the population being favorably inclined to the Protestant sov- 
ereigns. The wide prevalence of this sentiment was taken 
advantage of by some turbulent spirits, who attacked the 
town of St. Mary's, captured its fort St. Inigo, and proclaimed 
the government of William and Mary, in opposition to the 
Catholic proprietary. The latter, chiefly upon the ground of 
his being a papist, was, as Penn had been, for awhile deprived 
of his province, although permitted to receive his quit-rents, 
tonnage duty and other income. 

The assembly then called together (1692) by Lionel Cop- 
ley, the royal governor, made a radical alteration in the 
ecclesiastical constitution of the province, which heretofore 
had been tolerant of all religious sects, none being allowed 
either state support or pre-eminence. This equitable provision 
was now changed to the establishment by law of the national 



169S] MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. 229 

English church, the province being divided into parishes, and 
every taxable inhabitant obliged to pay for the support of the 
dominant sect. The new law was especially burdensome to 
the Friends and Catholics, the latter being forbidden, by an 
enactment made a few years later, either to preach or to teach. 
Copley's successor, Nicholson, removed the capital, in 1694, 
from St. Mary's to the new town of Annapolis, the present 
seat of government of the state. 

Previous to his appointment as governor of Maryland, 
Nicholson had held the office of deputy or lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of Virginia, under Lord Howard of Effingham, who 
had returned to England. A conspicuous personage in the 
colony at that time, and for half a century following, was 
James Blair, a Scotchman, who had come to Virginia as a 
missionary preacher, but soon received a commission as a sort 
of religious-director or legate for the bishop of London. It 
was through Commissary Blair's influence that a charter was 
obtained in 1691, locating at Williamsburg the William and 
Mary College, — the chief purpose of that institution being to 
educate ministers of the established church, for service in the 
colony. 

Upon the appointment of Sir Edmund Andros (1692) to 
succeed Governor Effingham, Nicholson lost his lieutenancy, 
and, as has been stated, became for a short time governor of 
Maryland. But Andros was scarcely more popular in Vir- 
ginia than he had been in New England, and upon his recall 
Nicholson received a commission as his successor. Having 
changed Maryland's capital, he successfully essayed the same 
thing in Virginia. Jamestown, ruined village that it was, 
was deserted in 1698, and Williamsburg, with its streets very 
loyally laid out in the shape of a W, took its place as the seat 
of government. 

20 



230 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1693 

JOHN ARCHDALE, OF CAROLINA. 

The efforts of Governor Colleton to reconcile the conflict- 
ing interests of the proprietors and the colonists of South 
Carolina, had been totally unsuccessful. Colleton was suc- 
ceeded (1691) by Philip Ludwell, to \\ hom was also intrusted 
the governorship of the .'\lbemarle settlements, made vacant 
by the banishment of Seth Sothel. Ludwell attempted to 
bring to justice a number of buccaneers who had been arrested 
at Charleston, which place had become one of their favorite 
resorts ; but this commendable act was resented by some of 
the traders and planters as an interference with a very profit- 
able branch of trade. These buccaneers were mostly English, 
who depredated upon the Spanish commerce and towns, and, 
in return for supplies afforded them, would spend their golden 
spoils with a lavish hand. 

Another wicked practice carried on by the planters, and 
usually connived at by the governors, was the traffic in Indian 
captives. The spirit of discord among the native tribes was 
fomented, wars followed, and the luckless captives being 
brought down to Charleston, were disposed of to traders 
from the West Indies. But the evil practice carried with it 
the seeds of retribution, inasmuch as the traders, in exchange 
for the captives, imported large quantities of rum from Ber- 
muda and the Barbadoes, thus fostering a custom depraving 
to the manners and destructive to the habits of industry of 
many of the colonists. 

Governor Ludwell favored the enfranchisement of the Hu- 
guenots, who now formed a numerous and intelligent portion 
of the population ; but this measure the Cavaliers would not 
hear to. Hence Ludwell, wearied by the constant opposition 
which he encountered, resigned his office in 1693. After a 
lapse of two years, Lord Ashley, a grandson of Shaftesbury, 
having declined to accept the proffered olifice of governor, it 



»693] JOHN ARCHDALE, OF CAROLINA. 231 

was conferred upon John Archdale, a member of the Society 
of Friends, and a proprietary by purchase. He was a man 
very similar to William Penn in administrative ability, and, 
like him, was possessed of great prudence and sagacity, 
united with admirable patience and command of temper. 
With marvellous celerity he restrained the lawless spirit of 
turbulence, suppressed abuses, and stilled the tumult of con- 
tending factions. 

Archdale organized at once a council of sensible and mod- 
erate men, and called together the representative assembly. 
An address of grateful thanks voted by this body to the pro- 
prietaries — the first expression of such sentiments ever uttered 
in Carolina — "attests," says Grahame, " the wisdom and be- 
nignity of Archdale's administration, and justifies the opinion, 
that, notwithstanding the inflammable materials of which the 
provincial society was composed, only a good domestic gov- 
ernment had been hitherto wanting to render the colony 
flourishing and happy." 

Having quieted the spirit of turbulence, this excellent 
pacificator endeavored to promote a better feeling toward the 
Huguenots, being careful not to advocate for them the imme- 
diate right of suffrage, but rather sought to awaken public 
generosity toward the refugees by warmly commending them 
to the hospitality and compassion of his countrymen. Yet 
he did not leave the work only half-done; for to the refugees 
themselves, he advised "a patient perseverance in those vir- 
tues that tend to disarm human enmity, and by the actual ex- 
ercise of which they were enabled shortly after to overcome 
the aversion, and even conciliate the friendly regards, of their 
fellow-countrymen." 

No less successful was Archdale in correcting those abuses 
from which the Indians had been such grievous sufferers. He 
appointed magistrates to settle cases of dispute between them- 
selves and the settlers, as had been done in Pennsylvania. 



232 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1696 

Some Indians who had been captured by another tribe and 
were about to be sold to the Islands as slaves, he caused to be 
returned to their homes. And, as honest, straight-forward 
treatment begets its like, so it happened that shortly after the 
above incident, an English vessel being wrecked upon the 
coast, the crew of which expected to be murdered and their 
cargo plundered as had formerly been the practice, were, on 
the contrary, khidly cared for by the natives, and safely con- 
ducted to their friends. In the spiritual welfare of the 
natives, Archdale was much interested, regretting the fact 
that his countrymen were so generally more greedy after the 
Indians' land than they were concerned for the salvation of 
their souls. 

These honorable methods of treatment were not lost upon 
the neighboring Spaniards, who now expressed for the first 
time a desire to maintain friendly relations with the English. 
Of course, in the Albemarle settlements, where were many 
Friends, Archdale's administration gave equal satisfaction. 
But it was not his design to remain in the country longer than 
was required to reform abuses and quiet the spirit of contro- 
versy ; hence, having accomplished those ends to an extent 
exceeding all expectation, he returned to England in the latter 
part of 1696, having earned the grateful thanks of all the 
people. 

To Archdale had been given the extraordinary privilege 
of nominating his successor. In making choice of Joseph 
Blake, nephew of the English admiral, for this position, 
Archdale continued the beneficent results of his own admin- 
istration ; for Blake was a man of prudence and moderation, 
and governed the province for four years much to the satis- 
faction of the colonists. But under James Moore and Na- 
thaniel Johnson, the two governors who succeeded Blake, 
were exhibited the unhappy results of an opposite line of 
policy from the foregoing. Again were the Indians kid- 



1729] THE WRONG POLICY RENEWED. 233 

napped, to be sold as slaves, and again was war made against 
the Spaniards of St. Augustine. But the expedition which 
was sent (1702) to capture that place proved unsuccessful; the 
colony moreover was brought into debt, and, of necessity, 
heavier taxes were imposed. 

The principal Indian tribes surrounding the English plan- 
tations were the Tuscaroras on the north, the Yamassees and 
Catawbas on the west, and the Cherokees and Creeks beyond, 
between the Ohio and the Gulf. In upper Florida were the 
Appalachees, where Spanish missionaries had established 
churches and instructed the natives in agriculture. Against 
this tribe the Creeks, aided by a few of the English, pro- 
ceeded in 1705. They plundered the Indian villages, burnt 
the chapels, and gave the country of the Appalachees to the 
lower tribe of Creeks, called the Seminoles. 

In addition to these wars, and the dissatisfaction occasioned 
by the laying of taxes and the issue of paper money, there 
arose religious disputes engendered by unjust laws against the 
Dissenters. Against the protest of Archdale, who was yet a 
proprietary, the national Church of England was established, 
although not a third of the inhabitants were of that denomi- 
nation. The country was divided into parishes as had already 
been done in Virginia and Maryland. From this time forth 
the proprietary government gave little satisfaction, and in a 
few years (1729) its connection with the province was dis- 
solved and its chartered interests sold to the crown. 



20* 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE WAR IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE, 

1702 — 1714. 



LOUISIANA SETTLED BY THE FRENCH. 

A BRIEF period of five years only elapsed between the peace 
of Ryswick in 1697, and the renewal of the struggle between 
the English and French colonies of America. It was during 
this transient interval of repose, that the French undertook 
the settlement of the country adjacent to the lower Mississippi, 
upon which La Salle had conferred the name of Louisiana. 

A Canadian named D' Iberville, with two hundred men in 
several vessels, sailed for the Gulf of Mexico (1699), and 
would have landed at the bay of Pensacola, but that the 
Spaniards were found already intrenched upon that excellent 
harbor. The French, therefore, continued farther westward, 
and upon the shores of the bay of Biloxi, within the limits 
of the present state of Mississippi, they built a fort and erected 
a number of huts. The Spaniards at first complained of this 
as an intrusion upon their territory of Florida, but, as a royal 
alliance at this time transferred the Spanish throne to a French 
prince, all serious opposition was turned aside. DTberville 
went several times to France for fresh settlers and supplies, 
and, aided by two of his brothers, explored the various intri- 
cate outlets of the Mississippi, ascended that stream and the 
Red river, and also entered into treaty with the neighboring 
Indians. 
234 



1704] THE DEERFIELD MASSACRE. 235 

Since the time of La Salle, the French missionaries and 
traders had not been slow in following upon the track of that 
discoverer, and at a number of i)oints upon the banks of the 
Mississippi little settlements had been established. It was 
soon found that Biloxi was not well situated for becoming a 
flourishing settlement, and accordingly most of the settlers 
removed eastward, and located in 1702 at the head of the 
broad bay of Mobile. At the northward, and nearly at the 
same time (1701) there was founded by the French the city 
of Detroit, eligibly situated upon the strait through which 
the waters of Lake Huron find an outlet into Lake Erie. 

The French had now control of the great interior water- 
ways of the country, and, with their new allies the Spaniards, 
it would thus appear that the English colonies would be de- 
barred from expansion upon every side, — north, south and 
westward. Yet these territorial pretensions of the French 
would probably have been insufficient to cause a rupture of 
the existing state of peace, had it not been for the breaking 
out of the war which England, in alliance with Holland and 
Germany, declared against France and Spain. Whereupon 
the colonies, their children, were drawn into the bloody vor- 
tex, just as they had been before. 

BARBARITIES OF THE AVAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 

As the Five Nations had recently entered into an agreement 
of amity with the French, and had admitted the Jesuit mis- 
sionaries among them, they could not be prevailed on by the 
English, their former allies, to aid them in their operations 
against Canada. Thus the harrowed field of war was transferred 
to New England, where a massacre by Canadians and Indians, 
at the frontier town of Deerfield (1704), spread terror into the 
hearts of the English. The same Captain Church, who had 
been prominent in the preceding war, as well as in the war 



236 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1708 

of King Philip, was despatclied by Governor Dudley of Mas- 
sachusetts against the French habitations on the Penobscot 
and to the eastward. An English frigate, at the same time, 
carried a thousand men against Acadie. They could not 
capture the fort at Port Royal, but the houses of the town 
were burnt, the cattle killed, and the corn which grew luxu- 
riantly upon the neighboring flats, was destroyed by cutting 
through the dams and allowing the water to inundate the 
fields. Yet the English had little cause to rejoice at this de- 
vastation, for in the following year (1708) there was another 
incursion of the French and Indians from Canada. Descend- 
ing the valley of the Merrimac, they surprised the town of 
Haverhill in the night, massacred about 50 of the inhabitants, 
and plundered and burnt their habitations. 

Massachusetts urgently appealed to Queen Anne and to the 
other colonies for help. The rest of New England, as well 
as New York and New Jersey responded to the call, but the 
Pennsylvania legislature, still influenced by the counsels of 
peace, replied that "they could not, in conscience, provide 
money to hire men to kill each other." Two ships of war 
and 500 marines having been sent from England, were joined 
by the transports carrying the colonial troops. Nicholson, 
late governor of Virginia, commanded the squadron which 
now proceeded against, and captured, the fort at Port Royal; 
while the various Acadian settlements were visited in turn, 
and made to feel the harsh displeasure of the conquerors. 

The "victories" of the Duke of Marlborough at Blen- 
heim and other hard-fought fields of carnage, had driven a 
large number of Germans from their homes, many of whom 
had gone to England. Several thousand of these fugitives, 
apprenticed as servants of the government, were at this time 
sent over to the banks of the Hudson, but they became dis- 
satisfied with their condition as contrasted with the free set- 
tlers, and force was used by the governor of New York to 



1 713] BARBARITIES OF THE WAR. 237 

compel them to submit. Yet their subsistence proved verj- 
expensive to the government, in fact far beyond the product 
of their labor. Finally, their indentures being cancelled, 
they became thriving and industrious, and removed to the 
upper waters of the Mohawk, where their fertile plantations 
became known as the " German Flats." Many of the same 
nationality also settled in compact bodies upon rich lands in 
Pennsylvania, where they retain their language and manners 
even to the present time. 

In 1 71 1, a much larger armament than the preceding, was 
sent against Canada, several regiments from Marlborough's 
army being despatched from England to join the provincial 
troops. Over 50 vessels, carrying 7000 men, sailed from 
Boston, and entered the St. Lawrence. A lesser body of 
land troops under Nicholson, joined by warriors of the Five 
Nations, who had been finally persuaded to take part in the 
contest, assembled at Albany, preparatory to an attack upon 
Montreal. It was intended that the attack of the land and 
naval forces should be simultaneous ; but this expectation was 
not destined to be realized, owing to the wreck of a number 
of the transports in the St. Lawrence and the loss of nearly 
a thousand men. Dispirited by this calamity, the English 
admiral re-crossed the Atlantic, while the colonial transports 
sailed back to Boston. 

This second war had been in several respects a counterpart 
of the first : numerous barbarities and burnings by whites 
and Indians; a similar attack upon and plundering of Port 
Royal; a like rebuff, not by man, but by the adverse winds 
and waters of the great Canadian river. The peace of 
Utrecht, in 171 3, shortly before the death of Queen Anne, 
put an end to the protracted contest. As part of its provi- 
sions, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland and Acadie or Nova 
Scotia, were ceded by the French to the English. 

But were they worth the price paid ? The resources of the 



238 HISTORY OF TEE UNITED STATES. [1712 

colonies were greatly diminished, while their growth was cor- 
respondingly checked ; many fields were untilled and extensive 
tracts had been desolated ; several thousand of the young 
men, the " flower of the country," had been slain or had died 
of diseases contracted in the service. Between the Piscataqua 
and Penobscot, a third of the inhabitants had fallen in the 
war. Most of the families in New York and New England 
were mourning for friends either killed or carried away into 
a miserable captivity. 

Ill England itself, the whole nation for a hundred and sixty years 
past has felt the burden of what the historian calls the "splendid 
victories of Blenheim, Ramiilies, Oudenarde," etc. Fifty million 
pounds sterling were then added to the English national debt. 
Thus year by year, through the centuries, must millions of men 
toil and be taxed to pay for the costly folly of kings. 

The treaty of Utrecht, amongst other concessions to England, 
gave to that country the exclusive privilege of introducing negro 
, slaves into Spanish America. As this wicked commerce was ex- 
pected to be exceedingly profitable, the English queen secured a 
fourth of the stock of the slave-trading company. 



THE TUSCARORAS. SLAVE LAWS. 

Almost a year before the close of the war with Canada, 
the inhabitants of North Carolina became involved in a war 
with the Tuscarora Indians. This tribe had felt aggrieved at 
the occupation of their land bordering the Neuse river, by a 
body of German inmiigrants, and, more recently by the tres- 
pass of some Swiss settlers. These established themselves at 
a place which they called New Berne, near where the Neuse 
expands into a broad estuary before its waters flow into Pamlico 
sound. 

Upon the commencement of hostilities by the Indians, 
Governor Craven of South Carolina sent a few of the colonial 



1713] THE TUSCARORAS. 239 

militia, with a large body of Catawbas, Yamassees and other 
native bands, against the Tuscaroras, whom they obliged to 
agree to a peace. But some of the allies, as they retired 
southward, fell upon several of the Tuscarora villages and 
carried off the inhabitants to be sold as slaves. Thereupon 
the war was renewed. About the same time, the yellow fever 
appeared, and many of the settlers fled in terror to Virginia. 
The Friends, who, as we have seen, were numerous in North 
Carolina, having refused to bear arms, the militia with their 
native auxiliaries again came up from the southern province, 
while Governor Spottswood of Virginia, also sent a few 
troops to aid in the kidnapping work. The fort of the Tus- 
caroras was besieged and taken, and the prisoners — eight hun- 
dred irr number — were given up to the Indian allies, to be 
taken to South Carolina and sold into slavery. The remainder 
of the Tuscaroras forsook their country the following year 
(17 13) and passing northward into the land of the Iroquois, 
were adopted by that confederacy, which became generally 
known thereafter as the Six Nations. 

Yet hardly two years elapsed before unscrupulous traders of 
Carolina brought on a war with their late auxiliaries — the 
Yamassees, Catawbas, Creeks and Cherokees. The planters, 
on all sides, were driven back from the frontiers into Charles- 
ton, and, in their turn, were now obliged to crave help from 
the neighboring provinces. Governor Hunter of New York 
despatched military supplies, and Spottswood of Virginia sent 
a shipload of volunteers and tributary Indians. With these, 
his own militia, and certain of the slaves whom he armed. 
Craven drove the Yamassees into Florida, while the other 
tribes consented to make peace. But the straightforwa-rd 
])olicy of Archdale, had it been continued, would have saved 
the million dollars of damages and debt which this shameful 
war entailed. It would appear as though, in proportion as a 
nation is conscious of a departure from rectitude in its deal- 



240 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1712 

ings with another power, it seeks to hide its unfairness or 
duplicity by an appeal to force. 

The first complete slave law for South Carolina was enacted 
in 1 71 2, there being at that time about 6000 whites and 10,000 
negroes in the province. It set forth that as the plantations 
and estates of the province could not be properly managed 
and tilled without the labor of negroes and other slaves, and 
as these latter were a wild and barbarous people, not qualified 
to be governed by the same laws and practices as the whites, 
therefore, in order for the good regulation of the province 
and the security of its inhabitants, it was enacted that all 
negroes, Indians and mulattoes, who could not prove that 
they were freemen, be made and declared slaves. 

It was also ordered by this code that any person finding a 
slave abroad without a pass, must chastise him, or else be 
liable to a penalty for the omission. All crimes committed 
by a slave, from thievery to murder, were punishable by 
death, but a lesser punishment could be substituted. If the 
owner of a runaway slave neglected to whip, cut off the ear, 
or brand the culprit with a hot iron, then the owner was to 
forfeit his claim to the slave. The leader of a company which 
captured a runaway, received several pounds compensation ; 
and if any person whilst engaged in such service should be 
wounded or disabled, the public had to pay the damages. If 
a slave was to die while being punished, no penalty was to be 
inflicted, unless bloody-mindedness could be proved ; then 
the murderer incurred a forfeit of fifty pounds. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GEORGE I. A PERIOD OF FINANCIERING. 

1714— 1727. 



PIRACY SUPPRESSED. THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 

With the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the rule of the 
house of Stuart in England came to an end. During most 
of the following thirteen years which comprised the reign of 
George the First, the late Elector of Hanover, there was 
comparative tranquillity in the colonies, although for a few 
years after the declaration of peace, the Carolina coasts and 
the West Indian seas were much infested by pirates, whose 
depredations became very annoying. 

A notorious freebooter known as '' Blackbeard," who had 
been accustomed to lurk about the inlets of the Pamlico, was 
captured, after a desperate resistance to the two ships which 
were sent in pursuit of him by Spottswood. Another, named 
Bellamy, suffered shipwreck on Cape Cod, and miserably per- 
ished with a hundred of his men. Even in Charleston, pub- 
lic opinion was turned against the pirates; and, it becoming 
known there that a party of these outlaws led by one. Steed 
Bonnet, had sought refuge upon the Cape Fear coast, an ex- 
pedition which resulted successfully was sent against them. 
Bonnet and forty of his accomplices were tried, found guilty 
and executed. 

When Alexander the Great put to a pirate the question : " By 
what right do you infest the seas?" the pirate answered, "By the 

L 21 241 



242 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [17 17 

same right that you infest the universe. But because I do it in a 
small ship, I am called a robber ; and, because you do the same 
acts with a great fleet, you are called a conqueror !" Possibly t+ie 
offence of Bonnet and Blackbeard was really no greater in the Di- 
vine sight than was that of the kidnapper Hawkins, yet the former 
were hung, while the latter was honored with knighthood ! 

The recent wars in Europe and America having left the 
participants greatly involved in debt, there now arose various 
paper-money projects intended to remedy the lack of real 
money, but, being founded on no solid basis of values, great 
financial distress was caused when the airy bubbles burst. 
Foremost of these schemes was that originated by John Law, 
a Scotch financier, who established a bank in France, empow- 
ered to issue paper currency ; and inasmuch as it became a 
depository of the public funds, its shares rose raijidly in esti- 
mated value. 

Connected with this Royal Bank was the Mississippi Com- 
pany, or Company of the Indies. The speculators who con- 
trolled this corporation had, in 171 7, obtained the commercial 
patent for Louisiana, which for the five previous years had 
been held by Crozat, a wealtliy French merchant. Under 
his auspices Fort Rosalie, on the site of Natchez, had been 
built ; and also a trading-house established on the Alabama, 
near where Montgomery now stands. But Crozat's expecta- 
tions of great riches to be obtained from the opening of mines, 
from importing negroes into Louisiana, and from a trade with 
Mexico, had failed of fulfilment. 

It was the aim of the Mississippi Company — to which was 
given in addition the control of the Canadian fur-trade — to 
colonize Louisiana at once with several thousand whites and 
negroes ; and, having ready command of the funds of the 
bank, it seemed at first as though the venture was destined to 
succeed. Law, on his own account, sent out a large colony 
of Germans, to improve a grant of land upon the Arkansas 



I720] BANKS AND BILLS OF CREDIT. 243 

river. But Bienville, the surviving brother of D'lberville, 
having, in 1718, cleared away the canebrakes that covered the 
swamp-site of the future city of New Orleans, it was not 
long before the colony on the Arkansas forsook that distant 
locality, and settled a few miles above the city of promise. 
Here, too, Bienville established the seat of government. 

But in 1720, while as yet New Orleans could boast of but a 
few insignificant sheds and huts, the Royal Bank failed, the 
great " Mississippi Bubble" burst, and the alluring scheme of 
colonization and empire suddenly collapsed. Nevertheless, 
the population of Louisiana had increased in five years from 
a few hundred to several thousand. Although the general 
unhealthiness of the climate, and the annual overflows of the 
lower Mississippi, unconfined as yet by artificial dykes, were 
serious obstacles to the growth of the colony, yet by the labor 
of negroes imported from Africa, the land was presently made 
to produce plentiful crops of rice, tobacco and indigo, and 
afterward its great staple, sugar. The government was admin- 
istered, on behalf of the company, by a commandant, assisted 
by the company's colonial directors and other officers, who 
composed a superior council. 

BANKS AND BILLS OF CREDIT. 

The people of the colonies being constantly in debt to the 
merchants of the mother country, money for remittances 
had been always in demand. Especially was this want expe- 
rienced since the late wars, and as a necessary consequence 
of the drain, the specie gradually disappeared, and the whole 
country found itself nearly bereft of a coin currency. The 
time had not yet come when America, in lieu of sending 
away its specie, could export grain, sugar and cotton to pay 
its debts. At the same time, the cupidity of the English 
traders interposed every possible obstacle to the colonists 



244 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1721 

producing their own manufactures or controlling their own 
commerce. 

As an expedient to promote trade and to provide the means 
for paying the expenses of its Indian wars, South Carolina 
had resorted to the plan of issuing bills of credit, and next 
(17 1 2), of creating a bafik, the stock of which should be 
loaned out to individuals and repaid with interest in annual 
instalments. But in a few years this paper issue so depreci- 
ated that it would pass at but a small fraction of its nominal 
value; and hence, in order to provide for the redemption of 
the outstanding bills, a tax of ten per cent, was levied on all 
imported British goods. 

The English merchants complained of this act, and the 
proprietaries were threatened with the loss of their charter. 
So much trouble thereupon ensued, that Francis Nicholson, 
the same who had already been governor of several of the 
colonies, was sent to South Carolina in 1721, to endeavor to 
allay the popular ferment. But between the traders of Charles- 
ton and the planters, there continued to be for several years 
a good deal of animosity; the planters urging the assembly 
to authorize the issue of the paper money, while the mer- 
chants were as strenuously opposed to its circulation. A law 
was passed, when paper bills were disallowed, making rice a 
legal tender in payment of debts. 

In the northern colonies, the two wars with the French, 
beside the loss of life and property which they entailed, had 
caused a corresponding financial distress, to relieve which, 
bills of credit were issued as in Carolina. In 1714, a public 
paper-money bank, though at first much opposed, was organ- 
ized in Boston. The plan was also adopted of making certain 
farm products receivable at a fixed rate for taxes. In Rhode 
Island, where a bank was established, borrowers were per- 
mitted to pay their interest in hemp or flax, the production 
of which staple that colony used great efforts to encourage. 



1722] IFA/^ WITH THE NORRIDGEIVOCKS. 245 

In New York, the issue of paper money by the assembly of 
Governor Hunter, was accomplished without much trouble, 
although the bills very soon declined to a third of their os- 
tensible value. This money was used to pay for old debts 
and services, to reward the Indian allies and to erect fortifica- 
tions. The like experiment was tried in Pennsylvania in 
1722, under Sir William Keith, who had been appointed to 
the governorship by Hannah Penn, widow of the late pro- 
prietary. The paper money was loaned out in sums of jT^xo 
to ^100; was secured upon real estate or silver plate; and 
drew interest at the rate of five per cent. Sub-banks or loan 
offices were established in every county. Indeed, in every 
colony except Virginia, the issue of this provincial paper 
money was imitated ; but as New England and the Carolinas 
were not so careful to restrain the issue as were the Middle 
provinces, the depreciation was correspondingly greater in 
those parts. 

The general results of this enlargement of the currency 
appeared at first to be beneficial. But, naturally, it was found 
that the paper issue as it depreciated, drove the remaining 
specie out of the country, and of course debarred the entrance 
of any more of the same ; that it stimulated the laxity of 
methods of credit, in preference to a healthy cash system ; 
that it was a detriment to trade and commerce, because of 
the unsettlement of merchandise values; and that, in place 
of aff"ording a real remedy for the scarcity of money, it but 
generated a wish to have the use of more. Its action was 
rather that of a stimulant to transiently excite, than of a 
nourisher to build up strongly. 

WAR WITH THE NORRIDGEWOCKS AND OTHER TRIBES. 

While the colonies were thus experiencing the bad results 
of a depreciated currency, difficulties again arose with the 



246 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1724 

Abenakis on the Acadian frontier. The French, in conformity 
with the late treaty, had removed from the peninsula of Nova 
Scotia, and, upon the island of Cape Breton, near its eastern 
extremity, had begun the erection of a strong fortress called 
Louisburg. Upon the Kennebec and Penobscot, French 
priests still maintained an influence over the native tribes, 
and were accused of keeping them hostile toward the Eng- 
lish. But the colonists of Massachusetts, jealous of French 
influence, continued to encroach to the eastward, and as they 
took no pains to conciliate the aborigines, the latter soon 
retaliated upon their aggressors. 

Early in 1722, an expedition which was sent against the 
Norridgewocks of the Kennebec, pillaged the Catholic mis- 
sion-house and the house of Rasles, the aged priest and mis- 
sionary. The tribe retaliated by burning the village of Bruns- 
wick. Far to the eastward, some warriors of another tribe, 
seized, in the strait of Canso, a large number of fishing-ves- 
sels which belonged to Massachusetts. The war shortly ex- 
tended all along the northern frontier as far as the Connecti- 
cut river, and, as it proved to be expensive, as well as annoying, 
large issues of paper money became necessary in order to 
carry it on. 

Massachusetts applied to Connecticut for aid, but at first 
that colony, which exhibited scruples as to the justice of the 
war, begged its neighbors to have a care how they shed inno- 
cent blood. But the voice of reason and justice was soon set 
aside and the aid granted. On the other hand, the Mohawks 
firmly refused to be drawn into the strife, the savages re- 
proving the whites by telling them to restore the Indian lands 
and prisoners if they truly wanted peace. A second expedi- 
tion being sent against the Norridgewocks (1724), the French 
priest and thirty of his Indian disciples were slain, the chapel 
burned and the village destroyed. To protect the settlements 
in the upper Connecticut valley, a fort was erected the same 



1726] IVAJ? WITH THE NORRIDGEWOCKS. 247 

year on the site of the present town of Brattleborough. It 
was the first English settlement within the territory of the 
future state of Vermont. 

There being a high premium paid for Indian scalps, a blood- 
thirsty fighter of the border led a party who surprised a group 
of ten Indians sleeping around a fire, and having murdered 
them all, returned in triumph to Dover, bearing the scalps 
elevated on poles. A few weeks later, this leader and nine of 
his men, met at the hands of the Indians with the same awful 
fate which they had inflicted on their antagonists. Massa- 
chusetts appealed to the king to compel the other colonists 
and the Mohawks to join in the war; but in the meantime a 
peace was arranged with the Indians, after the bitter contest 
had continued for three years. 

The colonists by this time began to perceive their error, 
and that it was themselves who were really to blame for all 
this unnecessary bloodshed. Hence, in order to protect the 
Indians against the extortions of private traders, they estab- 
lished public trading-houses where the natives could receive 
goods in exchange for their peltry, at something like a fair 
value. Thus peace was secured for many years, and the 
settlements of New Hampshire and Maine, which had been 
effectually hindered in growth by the war, now extended 
without interruption. In 1726, one year after the war, Pena- 
cook or Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, was laid 
out on the west bank of the Merrimac river. 

The trading-post of Oswego, the first English settlement 
upon the Great Lakes, was established by Burnet, who had 
succeeded Hunter as governor of New York. Burnet courted 
the alliance of the Five Nations, and obtained from them 
(1726) a broad tract of territory bounding on Lakes Ontario 
and Erie, and extending from Oswego, to Cuyahoga or Cleve- 
land. The English likewise claimed all the Canadian country 
which the Iroquois had conquered from the Hurons, on the 



248 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1726 

plea that the Iroquois were their allies, and were subject to 
the eminent domain of the sovereigns of England. But be- 
tween them and the tract they coveted, was the French fort 
at Niagara, commanding the water-way to the upper lakes and 
the Mississippi ; all of which country the French claimed by 
right of early discovery and of occupation. 



CHAPTER XX. 

GEORGE II, : FIRST PERIOD. 
1727— 1744. 



THE FRENCH WAR WITH THE NATCHEZ AND CHICKASAWS. 

The city of Natchez upon the Mississippi, marks the site, 
and will perpetuate the name, of a now extinct race of Sun- 
worshippers, in whose lowly temples, dedicated to the great 
luminary, an undying fire was once kept burning. As stated 
in the preceding chapter, the French had planted in that 
country the settlement of Fort Rosalie. The commandant 
of this post, with the recklessness of insatiable avarice, de- 
manded of the Natchez tribe, for his plantation, the very 
tract on which stood the huts of their principal village. It 
was a pretty little settlement called " the White Apple." 

Incensed at such a proposition, the Natchez listened to the 
counsel of the Chickasaws, their neighbors to the northward, 
and, having planned a sudden attack in the latter part of the 
year 1729, a general massacre of the French settlers at the 
fort ensued. All of the men, to the number of several hun- 
dred were murdered, and the women and children made pris- 
oners. We may well describe such a deed as a "savage 
blow;" and yet, how would nations called civilized — how 
would the French themselves — have treated so unjust a de- 
mand as that of giving into the hands of strangers their 
beloved homes, their chief city? Had they so learnt the 
pure law of the Gospel that they would have resigned all, 
L* 249 



250 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1736 

rather than have slain their enemies had they been in" their 
power ? 

But the French did not tarry long ere they executed their 
revenge. On the east of the Mississippi, between the chief 
colony of the French at New Orleans and the little nation 
of Sun-worshippers, was the numerous tribe of the Choctaws. 
Having made these their auxiliaries, the French invaded the 
Natchez country, put to death or captured many of the natives, 
and drove the remnant across the river, forcing them to seek 
safety with the Creeks and Chickasaws. The four hundred 
prisoners whom they had taken, were sent to Hispaniola to be 
sold into slavery. But the cost to the Company of the Indies, 
of defending this wilderness possession, greatly exceeding the 
profits which they realized, the grant was resigned in 1732 to 
the crown of France. 

Because of the counsel, hostile to the French, which the 
Chickasaws had extended to the Natchez, and because the 
former tribe was now threatening to sever the connection 
between Louisiana and the Great Lakes, by attacking the 
boats which passed up and down the Mississippi, the French 
authorities determined to make an end of them even as they 
had of the Natchez. If an additional incentive was wanting, 
to confirm the French in their purpose, it was afforded by the 
knowledge of the fact that English traders from Carolina had 
visited the Chickasaw villages, and busily inflamed the minds 
of the natives against them. So important was the success of 
the enterprise deemed to be, that many months were devoted 
to preparations for the expedition, which did not get started 
until the spring of 1736. 

The French force under Bienville proceeded in boats to 
Mobile, and ascended the Tombigbee to its upper waters; 
being accompanied by about 1200 of the Choctaws, who were 
eager to gain the high reward offered by the French for the 
scalps of their enemies. But when they^arrived at the in- 



1739] T^HE ASSIENTO AND AFRICAN TRADERS. 251 

trenchments of the Chickasaws, they found the warriors on 
the watch, and English flags displayed above the rude walls 
of the fort. The attacks of Bienville were so strongly resisted 
that he was obliged to order a retreat down the Tombigbee. 
In the meantime a similar force of French and Indians from 
the Illinois country, entered the Chickasaw territory on the 
north, expecting to form a junction with Bienville's band. 
Failing in this, they too made an assault and were driven 
back with much loss. The wretched prisoners having been 
bound, were burnt at the stake. One of the principal of these 
unfortunates was a Canadian, De Vincennes, whose name 
was given to the city on the Wabash, the oldest settlement in 
Indiana. 

In the year following, another attempt was made to sub- 
due the refractory tribe, the French on the Mississippi re- 
ceiving aid from Canada. On the prominent bluff where 
Memphis was subsequently built, a fort had been constructed ; 
and here the whites, red men and negroes, to the number of 
about 3500, established their quarters and passed an unhealthy 
winter. In the spring (i 739), the Chickasaws being willing to 
agree to a peace, the French gladly destroyed their fort on 
the bluff and went back to their settlements. 

THE ASSIENTO AND THE AFRICAN TRADERS. 

Under the treaty of Utrecht, the English South Sea Com- 
pany was granted the exclusive privilege of introducing negro 
slaves into the -Spanish West Indian dominion. For this 
wicked favor of becoming the chief slave-dealers of the na- 
tions, it was stipulated that the company should pay to the 
king of Spain a duty of tuYi a head, and that it should 
introduce into the said colonies within the space of thirty 
years, 144,000 negro bondsmen. The South Sea Company, 
which was organized nearly at the same time as were Law's 



252 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1739 

Royal Bank and Mississippi Company, and which resembled 
the bank in its plan of buying up the national debt with its 
stock, was destined, however, to meet with a like disastrous 
termination. 

■ Notwithstanding the notable failure of this bubble-sclieme, 
the Assiefito contract, above set forth, survived the financial 
wreck, and fulfilled its unholy office. At the same time, the 
organized "African Company," encouraged and firmly sus- 
tained by English legislation, continued to supply England's 
own colonies with thousands of the same oppressed race. It 
is computed that in the century between 1676 and 1776, the 
English nation, by means of these two agencies, imported 
into their own dependencies and into the Spanish and French 
West Indies, about three million negroes, most of them be- 
tween the ages of 15 and 30 years. Beside these, there were 
probably a quarter of a million of those who had been pur- 
chased on the African coast for a similar purpose, who suc- 
cumbed to the horrors of the "Middle passage" and were 
buried beneath the waters of the Atlantic. 

If we would bring the iniquity of this traffic vividly to view, let 
us read from the diary of a certain surgeon of an English slave- 
ship on the Guinea coast — written while waiting for a cargo of war- 
captives : 

" Sestro, Dec. 29, 1724. — No trade to-day, though many traders 
came on board. They informed us that the people are gone to war 
within-land, and will bring prisoners enough in two or three days, in 
hopes of which we stay. 

"The 31st. — Fair weather, but no trading yet. We see each night 
towns burning ; but we hear many of the Sestro men are killed 
by the inland negroes, so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful. 

"The 2nd of January. — Last night we saw a prodigious fire 
break out about eleven o'clock, and this morning see the town of 
Sestro burnt down to the ground. It contained some hundred 
houses ; so that we find their enemies are too hard for them at 
present, and consequently our trade is spoiled here. Therefore, 
about 7 o'clock we weighed anchor, to proceed lower down." 



1729] GEORGIA FOUNDED BY OGLETHORPE. 253 

One of the factors of the African Company, of England, wrote 
thus in 1730 : " When the king of Barsalli wants goods and brandy, 
he sends to the English governor at James' Fort, who immediately 
sends a sloop. Against the time the vessel arrives he plunders 
some of his neighbors' towns, selling the people for the goods he 
wants. At other times he falls upon one of his own towns, and 
makes bold to sell his own subjects." 

The importation of so many negroes into the American 
colonies was the occasion of considerable complaint on the 
part of several of them, especially of Virginia. But the 
British government, upheld by its merchants and traders, was 
strenuous in maintaining the commerce, which it character- 
ized as a "trade highly beneficial and advantageous to the 
kingdom and its colonies." I'he selfishness and folly of its 
motives are apparent in the declaration which was used, that 
" negro labor will keep our British colonies in a due subservi- 
ency to the interests of their mother-country; for, while our 
plantations depend only on planting by negroes, our colonies 
can never prove injurious to British manufactures — never 
become independent of their kingdom." 

GEORGIA FOUNDED BY OGLETHORPE. 

In 1729, the charter of Carolina was sold by the eight pro- 
prietaries to the British crown. The first royal governor of 
South Carolina, Robert Johnson, undertook to encourage 
settlements by free gifts of land, to be laid out on the princi- 
pal rivers : Purysburg, upon the Savannah, founded by Swiss 
emigrants, being the first place settled in accordance with this 
scheme. Meanwhile the Spaniards of Florida, although claim- 
ing part of Carolina itself, had but the one chief settlement 
of St. Augustine in the east, together with Pensacola in the 
west, and the fort of St. Mark's on Appalachee bay, midway 
between. But the territory lying south of the Savannah, the 

22 



254 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1732 

English laid claim to as part also of Carolina ; wherefore in 
1732, to the intent that it might serve as a barrier against 
future Spanish invasion, they authorized its settlement. To 
twenty-one trustees was granted the country lying between 
the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, and extending from the 
headwaters of those streams westward to the Pacific : to be 
called the province of Georgia, and to be held in trust for 
the poor. 

The person who was chiefly instrumental in obtaining the 
grant was James Oglethorpe, a member of the British parlia- 
ment. His attention had been especially directed to the sub- 
jects of prison discipline and of imprisonment for debt, and, 
as a commissioner for inquiring into the condition of English 
prisons, he had been the means of releasing a large number 
of helpless debtors who for years had been kept in confine- 
ment, with no prospect of paying off the scores against them. 
To provide homes and the chance of re-commencing life, for 
these; to secure a *' place of refuge for the distressed people 
of Britain and the persecuted Protestants of Europe," Ogle- 
thorpe and his associates in the enterprise petitioned the king 
for the above tract. 

The charter of Georgia granted the free exercise of religion 
to all people within its borders, papists only excepted. It 
declared that every one born in the province should be as 
free in every respect and enjoy the same rights and immuni- 
ties as if born upon the soil of Britain. But all the powers 
of government were conferred upon a council, part of them 
named in the charter, and the rest to be chosen by the trus- 
tees, to whom was also given the privilege of filling all vacan- 
cies as they occurred. Hence the form of government was 
not really a representative one of the people. Begun as a 
scheme of benevolence, it was thought best that the control 
should at first be in the hands of trustees, with executive 
powers similar to those of the managers of any charitable 



1733] GEORGIA FOUNDED BY OGLETHORPE. 255 

organization. To prevent the wholesale absorption of lands by 
a few people, as had been the case in Carolina and Virginia, 
it was provided that no one person should be permitted to re- 
ceive a larger tract than 500 acres. The culture of silk, it was 
anticipated, would be the chief industry of the new colony. 

Early in 1733, Oglethorpe and about 130 emigrants of the 
needy class, sailed up the Savannah river (called also the 
Isun'diga) and tipon the sandy bluff of Yamacraw, twenty 
miles from the sea, made choice of the site of Georgia's future 
metropolis — the city of Savannah. A treaty of amity was 
entered into with the Creeks, and friendly relations established 
with the other neighboring tribes. The territory between the 
two rivers (the Savannah and Altamaha) as far up as the flow 
of tide-water, was readily granted by the natives. 

In the second year there came, besides a number of Jews, 
a body of persecuted Lutherans from the principality of Salz- 
burg in Germany. Singing psalms upon the way, the pious 
exiles had come down the Rhine to Rotterdam ; at Dover were 
kindly received by some of the trustees of the Georgia colony; 
and having crossed the ocean to Charleston, were welcomed 
there by Oglethorpe, who led them to the locality, not far 
above Savannah, which he had set apart for their settlement. 
They called the place Ebenezer ; and being joined by others 
of the Salzburgers, tli^y soon established a happy and pros- 
perous community. Nearly at the same time, Augusta, at the 
head of navigation on the river, was established as a trading- 
post ; the traffic with the Indians soon being greater in Georgia 
than in any other of the southern provinces. Highlanders 
also came and settled on the Altamaha. 

On the Ogeechee river, south of Savannah, a few Moravians 
under Spangendurg, sent over by Count Zinzendorf, a noted 
leader of that sect, located themselves, with the intention of 
carrying on missionary work among the Indians. The brothers 
John and Charles Wesley, afterward so well known as the 



256 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1733 

founders of Methodism, came to Savannah ; Charles as secre- 
tary to Oglethorpe, and his brother with the purpose of be- 
coming an Indian missionary : but they did not remain long 
in the colony. Upon their return to England, George 
Whitefield, the celebrated preacher, came over in 1738, and 
having interested himself in founding an orphan asylum near 
Savannah, made an extensive tour through the colonies, 
preaching and collecting funds for the asylum's support. 
This was the time in the religious history of our country 
which was characterized by intense religious excitement and 
enthusiasm, and is spoken of as the "Great Awakening." 

RUM AND SLAVERY. THE SPANIARDS AND INDIANS. 

The introduction into Carolina of the rum of Barbadoes 
had proved such a serious evil to that colony that the trustees 
determined to prohibit its use in Georgia; and in order that 
it might be the better excluded, all trade with the West Indies 
was forbidden. This course was much resented by the debtor- 
settlers, who should naturally have been the most grateful for 
the kindness of which they had been the recipients. They 
declared that rum was essential in such a climate as is that 
of lower Georgia, with its low sandy plains, and swamps that 
breed the miasma. But the Salzburgers and Highlanders, 
men better accustomed to patient labor, were a more temper- 
ate class, who believed the disease was best fought by removing 
its causes ; that the latter could be better effected by draining 
their land and keeping it well cultivated, than by the use of 
ardent spirits. 

Among the minutes of the board of trustees occurs the following 
entry : " Read a letter from Mr. Oglethorpe with an account of the 
death of several persons in Georgia, which he imputed to the drink- 
ing of rum. Resolved, that the drinking of rum in Georgia be ab- 
solutely prohibited, and that all which shall be brought there shall 
be staved." 



1739] RUM AND SLAVERY. 257 

John Wesley wrote, many years afteiwaid, alluding jDiobably to 
this period of his life : " I was fully convinced above 40 years ago 
that all distilled liquors are liquid fire, and consequently, slow 
poison. It is from this consideration that we do not admit in our 
society either distillers or retailers of spirituous liquors." 

The trustees also prohibited slavery in the colony ; but the 
class who were clamorous for rum were also the most eager to 
be maintained by the labor of the negro. The words of Ogle- 
thorpe relative to the practice, are worthy of retention in our 
country's history : " Slavery," he says, " is against the gospel, 
as well as the fundamental law of England. We refused, as 
trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid crime." The 
Salzburgers of Ebenezer, contented in their homes of peace, 
and busy in the work of producing raw silk and indigo, ear- 
nestly protested against the introduction of slaves. White- 
field and the Wesleys, who had witnessed the results of slavery 
in the Carolinas, were also inuch concerned lest Georgia should 
fall under its withering blight. All three were moved to write 
earnest addresses on the subject, to the American planters. 
But with the systeni in active operation in Carolina and 
Florida, Georgia was not able long to withstand the contami- 
nating influence. 

Ambitions to establish the boundary-mark of the English 
dominion on the Atlantic coast, Oglethorpe located the forti- 
fied post of Frederica on St. Simon's island below the mouth 
of the Altamaha ; and, still further south, two other forts on 
the islands at the mouths of the St. Mary's and the St. John's. 
New treaties were entered into with the Indians, who declared 
themselves ready to aid the English against either the Span- 
iards or French. Opportunity was not long delayed, for, in 
1739, England declared war against Spain, on the ground 
that the latter country had refused to agree to the commercial 
requirements of England, and had exercised severe measures 
upon captured English smugglers. But the fleet of Admiral 



258 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1740 

Vernon which was expected to effect the conquest of the 
Spanish West Indies, was baffled in its object; while Ogle- 
thorpe, though aided by South Carolina troops, failed to 
effect the capture of St. Augustine. 

Charleston, by an accidental fire, was laid in ashes (1740), 
and the settlers at that time were also in much dread of a 
revolution of the slaves. 

The Spaniards having collected a considerable force, their 
fleet of over thirty vessels sailed from Cuba for the Georgia 
coast. After an unsuccessful attempt to capture Fort William 
at the mouth of the St. Mary's, they proceeded against Fred- 
erica on the island of St. Simon ; but the troops having de- 
barked, were attacked as they were crossing a marsh, by the 
army of Oglethorpe, and obliged to retreat to their ships. 
The squadron made another fruitless assault upon Fort Wil- 
liam, and then returned to Cuba. Oglethorpe the following 
year went back to England. Although of a benevolent dis- 
position, the founder of Georgia had, from boyhood, been 
attached to military pursuits, and as a consequence of this 
training he '^was ever ready," says Bancroft, " to shed blood, 
rather than brook an insult." 

It is instructive to consult tlie testimony of history as to the cause 
of this British-Spanish war, of which only a fragment is here related. 
We will find that in this instance the two g(n<e7-n7neiits really desired 
peace; that they had each appointed commissioners to determine 
the boundary between Carolina and Florida, as well as to arrange 
the other matters in dispute. But the English people refused to 
abide by the proposed arrangement, declaring that it would unfavor- 
ably affect their interests. They appear to have believed that they 
could easily overcome their rich but less hardy enemies ; and hence, 
owing to the belligerent clamors of the traders and the excited popu- 
lace, the negotiations were broken off and the government forced 
into a war. 

The sturdy and industrious Highlanders and others, who 
had proved such a valuable acquisition to the colony, had been 



I74I] THE BRITISH-SPANISH WAR. 259 

withdrawn from their useful occupations and obliged to serve 
as soldiers. More than this, the Moravians, who had come 
to Georgia to make Christians of the Indians, and not to 
teach them the art of war, finding that their work was quite 
broken up, determined to leave the colony. "In order to 
avoid taking up arms, which, at that time," says De Schweinetz, 
" was contrary to the principles of the Church, they relin- 
quished all their improvements and emigrated to Pennsyl- 
vania, arriving at Philadelphia April 20, 1740, in company 
of George Whitefield, and in his sloop." They settled at 
the Forks of the Delaware on land belonging to Whitefield ; 
but a year later purchased an adjacent tract on the Lehigh, 
where a mission settlement arose, which by Count Zinzendorf 
was called Bethlehem. 

To aid Admiral Vernon, the northern colonies had also 
been called on to furnish their quotas of troops and supplies. 
Spottswood, late the governor of Virginia, had died of yellow 
fever at the disastrous siege of Carthagena (1741), where he 
had been second in command. In Pennsylvania, the assembly 
being still mostly Friends, were, as before, scrupulous about 
voting money for the furtherance of war ; but as the governor 
and most of the inhabitants were of another way of thinking, 
there ensued a warm controversy upon the subject of the 
militia and measures of defence. Massachusetts, under Gov- 
ernor William Shirley, ordered the issue of more provincial 
paper money, and furnished the troops called for. Of 4000 
men who went from the colonies to the war, it is stated that 
not a tenth part ever returned. 

It was at this time (1741) that New Hampshire, which had 
had the same governors as Massachusetts, was permitted one 
of its own. Penning Wentworth, who first held the posi- 
tion, continued to serve for a period of twenty years. The 
town of Bennington, then settled, received its name from this 
efficient officer. 



26o HISTORY OF THE UxYITED STATES. [17 18 



THE WALKING PURCHASE. BRAINERD. 

The Indian Walk, or Walking Purcliase, appears as a promi- 
nent incident in the colonial history of Pennsylvania. It 
strongly marks the departure from that plain path of right- 
dealing, which the benevolent Penn had hoped would ever 
subsist between his successors in the proprietary trust and the 
original occupants of the soil. At the Great Treaty, Penn 
had declared to them in good faith that they "were met on 
the broad pathway of peace and good-will, so that no advan- 
tage was to be taken on either side, but all was to be openness, 
brotherhood and love." But unhappily, as it proved, for the 
peace and prosperity of the commonwealtli, the descendants 
of Penn (who differed in religious faith from their ancestor,) 
were also at times, in their colonial dealings, inclined to a 
different practice. Their interest in the colony was not, like 
his, so entirely unselfish in its character, and hence they had 
not the same regard for the establishment therein of pure and 
noble principles of life and government. 

In making land purchases of the Indians, it had been the 
practice of Penn and his agents to define the boundaries by 
streams and highlands, so far as their knowledge of the coun- 
try extended ; but, respecting the unknown interior, such 
vague terms were used as "two days journey with a horse" 
or "as far as a man can go in two days," etc. Penn's own 
policy was one so grounded in uprightness and love, that he 
preferred paying for land several times over, and to as many 
different claimants, rather than, through lack of an indis- 
putably clear title, to expose the settlers upon his lands to the 
chance of a miserable death by the scalping-knife and toma- 
hawk. 

A deed made in 171S, by a number of chiefs of the Dela- 
wares, had confirmed to the proprietaries the title to all the 
territory between the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, as far 



1733] THE WALKING PURCHASE. 261 

northward as the Lehigh hills. But as the land beyond the 
latter boundary began to be taken up by settlers, the Indians 
made complaint of these encroachments, and accordingly 
Thomas Penn, who was then in the province, paid for a part 
— the Tulpehocken lands on the Schuylkill — but refused to 
make compensation for the territory at the Forks of the Dela- 
ware. The " Forks" included not only the site of the present 
city of Easton, but the whole region comprised between the 
Lehigh and Delaware, and bounded on the north by the Blue 
Moimtains. It was agreed finally that the dispute should be 
decided according to the wording of the oldest deed to Penn, 
to wit : one and a half days' journey northward from the 
Neshamony creek towards the mountains, and from that point 
a straight line to be drawn eastward to the Delaware. 

The proprietors immediately advertised in the public papers 
for the 7nost expert walkers in the province, offering a reward 
of several pounds in money, besides a tract of 500 acres of 
land, to the one who should walk the farthest in the given 
time. Of the applicants, three were carefully chosen, the 
Indians bringing forward a like number of their own nation 
to accompany them. Upon a selected day in the latter part 
of 1733, when the time from sunrise to sunset was the longest, 
the pedestrians started from the Neshamony (twenty miles 
north of Philadelphia), on their momentous journey. By the 
time they had crossed the Lehigh hills and the river of that 
name, two Indians and one of the whites had given out. At 
sundown, the north side of the Blue Ridge was reached, 
though not without running ; and here were a great number 
of Indians collected, expecting the walk to terminate at that 
place, but upon finding it was to be continued half as far 
again, they became very angry. The following morning the 
walking was proceeded with and finished, all having given out 
but one, a white man. The Six Nations, the masters of the 
Delawares, confirmed the land to the English. 



262 niSrORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1733 

By this piece of over-reaching it was, that Penn's successors 
extinguished the Indian title to the rich lands of the Minisinks 
beyond the Delaware Water Gap. But the land speculators 
had a special reason for desiring the Minisink territory to be 
included in the walk, which was, that thousands of those acres 
had been previously surveyed and sold. Also, about the time 
of the walk, the proprietary had issued proposals for a lottery 
of 100,000 acres of land ; it having been stipulated that pur- 
chasers of tickets should take up any unoccupied tracts. In 
this manner many tracts at the Forks were now settled upon. 
The Walking Purchase became the cause of jealousies and 
heart-burnings among the Indians, eventually breaking out 
into loud complaints of injustice, followed by savage acts of 
vengeance, as will appear farther on in our history. 

The account of the manner in which the Dutch first gained a 
footing in Java, exhibits a signal instance of this sort of over- 
reaching. Beginning to traffic with the Javanese by giving them 
an extravagant price for their goods, they thus craftily gained their 
friendship. The Dutch captain of the ship then asked permission 
to come up the river, as his vessel, he said, needed repairs ; and the 
request was cheerfully granted by the native prince. A small piece 
of land was next requested, upon which to erect a shed ; and this 
was also acceded to. Next, the natives were invited to aid in a 
good-paying work, and by the direction of the captain a mud wall 
was raised, which served to hide his operations. The favor of the 
prince had been steadily courted, and of course he had no objection 
to the next trifling ])etition of the captain, that he might be allowed 
as much land as could be covered by a buffalo's hide. But the hide 
being cut into strips, the Dutch claimed all the land it would en- 
close ; meanwhile continuing to erect their works, with a promise 
to pay the natives shortly. But when XXyt. fort (for such it was they 
were building) was finished, the mud wall was thrown down, the 
captain planted his cannon, and refused to pay a penny for the work ! 

Seven years subsequent to the Walking Purchase (1740), 
came the Moravian colony from Georgia, and settled at the 



1744] BRAINERD. 263 

Forks of the Delaware. A little later (1742), Christian 
Rauch and other Moravians began to labor among the Mohe- 
gan tribe in Eastern New York and also just within the borders 
of Connecticut ; but the assembly of New York, instigated by 
the land-speculators and liquor-traders, forbade the mission- 
aries to preach. Accompanied by some Indian converts they 
therefore moved down to their settlement of Bethlehem, on 
the Lehigh. 

Simultaneously, John Sargent, a tutor of Yale College, 
originated a mission among the Housatonic Indians at Stock- 
bridge in western Massachusetts, not far from Rauch's little 
settlements. Sargent labored with much zeal and success for 
fifteen years, when he died. The noted Jonathan Edwards 
became his successor. The Stockbridge colony, when Sargent 
was stricken down, had increased from fifty natives to four 
times that number, and possessed neat dwellings, cultivated 
farms, a house of worship and several schools. 

A young man of strong intellect, of excellent memory, search- 
ing and convincing in his discourse, was David Brainerd, a 
pupil of Jonathan Edwards, who came in 1744 from Connec- 
ticut, to labor among the Delawares and Minisinks at the 
Forks, and in central and western New Jersey. Living in 
their wigwams, eating their coarse fare, regardless of creature 
comforts so that he might have many hours of quiet for 
meditation and prayer, he travelled — mostly at his own charges 
— hundreds of miles through the wooded wilderness and 
swamps, and over toilsome steeps, exhibiting in his beautiful 
Christian life a worthy example of purity and of self-denial. 

The scene of Brainerd's greatest success was in New Jersey. 
The jirincipal village of the Christian Indians was called by 
tlie name of Bethel, and it was said of its people that their 
consistent lives " put to shame their wliite brethren in other 
churches." But the young missionary sustained for three 
years only this arduous life in the wilderness; for, having 



264 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1744 

embarked upon a journey to the upper Susquehanna (whither 
he had been several times before), his feeble frame gave way 
under the fatigue and exposure, and death ensued before he 
had reached his thirtieth year. A younger brother, John 
Brainerd, entered the same field of useful work. Although 
much favored by Belcher, the governor of New Jersey, yet 
many of the Indian titles for lands being disputed, fell into 
the hands of chief-justice Morris, an irreligious man, and the 
Indians of Bethel were eventually ejected from their posses- 
sions. 

One who came to assist the younger Brainerd, says : " It is sur- 
prising to see the people who, not long since, were led captive by 
Satan at his will, and living in the practice of all manner of abomi- 
nations, without the least sense even of moral honesty, yet now 
living soberly and regularly, and not seeking every man his own, 
but every man, in some sense, his neighbor's good ; and to see those 
who but a little while past, knew nothing of the true God, now 
worshipping him in a solemn and devout manner, not only in 
public, but in their families and in secret ; which is manifestly the 
case, it being a difficult thing to walk into the woods in the morning 
without disturbing persons in secret devotions. It seems wonderful 
that this should be the case not only with adult persons, but with 
children also ; for it is observable here, that many children retire 
into secret places to pray." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

GEORGE II. SECOND PERIOD. 

1744— 1760. 



THIRD WAR WITH CANADA. LOUISBURG CAPTURED. 

The wars that at intervals broke out between the rival 
monarchs of Europe, were always accompanied, as we have 
seen, by a counterpart conflict in the American colonies. 
When Charles VI., Emperor of Germany, died in 1740, the 
claim 6f his daughter Maria Theresa to the throne, was dis- 
puted by the Elector of Bavaria. England, thereupon, 
espoused the cause of the former, while France, Spain and 
Prussia took the part of the Bavarian, and for seven years 
were fought upon the plains of western Europe the battles for 
the Austrian succession. Meanwhile the angry billows of 
strife had broken upon the American shores, where the English 
colonies, under the leadership of Massachusetts, prepared once 
more to attack Canada. 

It was considered, in the first place, of vital importance to 
firmly secure the friendship of the Six Nations ; and accord- 
ingly. Governor Clinton of New York, together with com- 
missioners from New England, met the chiefs and envoys of 
the tribes at Albany, in 1743, and gained them over by liberal 
presents. And at another important council held at Lancaster 
a year later, it was agreed, upon the part of Pennsylvania, 
Maryland and Virginia, that the claim of the Six Nations to 
the country between the Bhie Ridge and the Ohio, which they 
M 23 265 



266 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1745 

had conquered from the Shawnees, should now be admitted. 
For the sum of ^400, all the beautiful valley of the Shenan- 
doah and the mountain country back to the Ohio, were given 
up to the English. 

But the vanquished Shawnees who had been thus deprived 
of their hunting-grounds, and the Delawares who had lost 
largely of their land by the Indian Walk, both favored the 
cause of the French. 

The latter nation began hostilities by the capture of the 
little fort, and the destruction of the fishery, at Canso, on the 
nortli-eastern extremity of the Nova Scotian peninsula; and, 
as privateers, issuing from Louisburg on the opposite isle of 
Cape Breton, threatened to injure the New England commerce 
and to annihilate its fisheries, it was determined to attempt 
the conquest of that formidable fortress. The colonies as far 
south as Pennsylvania having been solicited for aid, 4000 
troops, mostly furnished by Massachusetts, were placed under 
the command of William Pepperell, and, embarking for 
Canso, were shortly joined by several ships from England 
under Commodore Warren. The siege of I^ouisburg, after it 
had continued over two months, was terminated in the sixth 
month (June) 1745, by the surrender of its French garrison, 
together with the defenders from the town, numbering in all 
nearly 2000 men. Although the loss of the English in the 
siege had been but about 150, yet of those who were now unwil- 
lingly detained to garrison the place, ten times that number 
perished by disease, many of them being Indians who had been 
persuaded to enlist as soldiers in the provincial regiments. 

While the colonies, in the expectation of another fleet from 
England, were raising additional troops to follow up their 
recent success by the hoped-for conquest of Canada, great 
consternation was caused by the news of the sailing of a 
French squadron of forty ships-of-war for the American coast. 
But the hostile fleet was shattered by storms and shipwreck, 



1747] THIRD WAR WITH CANADA. 267 

and the troops were wasted by a pestilent disease ; moreover, 
the admiral died, and his successor, in a delirium, committed 
suicide. The ships returned singly to France, but having 
subsequently made a second attempt (1747) to reach Canada, 
th-ey were captured by the English fleet of Admiral Anson. 

In the meantime the Canadian Indians, allies of the French, 
were active in harassing the northern frontier. At Crown 
Point, on the west shore of Lake Champlain, a fort had 
been constructed by the French, and from there a small force 
was sent, which surprised and ravaged the English settle- 
ment at Saratoga. The official agent of the English among 
the Six Nations at this period, was a man of Scotch-Irish 
birth, named William Johnson. He had established him- 
self on tlie Mohawk river, thirty miles west of Albany, where 
he diligently cultivated the good-will of the natives, took a 
wife from amongst them, and carried on a lucrative traffic, 
supplying them with rum, fire-arms and scalping-knives, or 
whatever else their savage need craved. Johnson's influence 
over the Mohawk tribe was greater than that of any of their 
native chiefs, and, in the war with the French, he led a party 
of the tribe who were designed to act as forest- skirmishers in 
advance of the main army. 

In Pennsylvania, the concern of the Friends, the Mennonites 
and others, for peace, was at last overruled by the governor 
and a majority of the people of the province, — the wishes 
of the latter being greatly aided by Benjamin Franklin. 
The philosopher at that time was a man above forty years of 
age, and by his printed productions, his great abilities and 
natural force of character, began to exercise much weight in 
political affairs. There being a rumor that French privateers 
were about to attempt the capture of Philadelphia, a large 
militia force was organized, and money was raised by lotteries 
to erect batteries for the defence of the Delaware. And thus 
terminated (1747) the happy period of uninterrupted peace 



268 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1748 

and of freedom from invasion, which had existed for the 
period of 65 years since the foundation of the province. 

The SCHWENCKFELDIANS, a body of Germans, who, on account 
of the religious toleration and immunity from military service 
which they were told prevailed in Pennsylvania, had come hither 
in 1733 and '34, were likewise opposed to the war. The founder 
of the sect, Caspar de Schwenckfeldt, a Silesian knight, was a con- 
temporary of Luther. For two hundred years his followers re- 
mained in Silesia, but, having been subjected to much persecution 
by the Jesuits, they removed to Saxony, where they found a friend 
in Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian. Eight years later, however, 
receiving a peremptory notification to depart, they embarked for this 
country. A few years subsequently, Frederick of Prussia, amazed 
at the short-sightedness which had driven away such an honest and 
industrious community, issued an edict, offering to re-imburse them 
for all their losses, and to give them new farms and building-lots 
free of cost, but not one of the Schwenckfeldians accepted the 
proffered aid and protection. 

Witli the peace of Aix-la-Chapeixe in 1748, the war in 
Europe and America (and in India, to which it had likewise 
extended) was brought to a close. Cape Breton and Louis- 
burg were returned to the French, and the St. Mary's river 
was made the boundary between Georgia and Spanish Florida. 
But the right of the Spaniards to search English vessels sus- 
pected of smuggling, which had been a principal pretext of 
the war with Spain, was not even alluded to in the treaty. 



THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES. SLAVES AND REDEMPTIONERS. 
THE MOLASSES ACT. 

Baltimore, the present metropolis of Maryland, was laid 
out in 1729, but for thirty years or more, it remained a mere 
village : Annapolis, the seat of government, being the more 
important place. Thomas Bladen, who had married a sister 
of Lord Baltimore, was governor under the proprietor at the 



1746] THE SOUTHERN PROVEWCES. 269 

time of the war with Canada ; but being a man of an irascible 
temperament, which caused him easily to fall into disputes 
with the assembly, he was displaced (1747) by Benjamin Ogle, 
a former occupant of the governor's office. 

Under the proprietor, Frederick, the sixth and last Lord 
Baltimore, the Catholics, having for many years experienced 
the social annoyances and disadvantages imposed upon them 
in the province which themselves had settled, applied to the 
court of France for a grant of lands in Louisiana ; but no 
practical step followed the application. About the same time 
(1751) the Nanticoke tribe of Lidians, left their ancient homes 
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and carrying with them 
the bones of their forefathers, found a temporary resting- 
place and hunting-grounds about the upper waters of the 
Susc[uehanna. 

In North Carolina, the collection of the quit-rents — the 
sole source from which was derived the pay of the governor 
and other royal officers — continued to be the occasion of a 
great deal of contention, precisely as it had been in South 
Carolina, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey. Finally, when 
their salaries had become several years in arrears, the royal 
officers removed the seat of government (1746) from the 
Albemarle plantations down to the new settlement of Wil- 
mington, on the Cape Fear river. The southern counties 
were more favorable to the governor ; and the English authori- 
ties having approved of the change, the collection of the quit- 
rents and the payment of arrearages of salary were then carried 
into effect. 

The institution of slavery, although it existed, to a greater 
or less degree in all the colonies, did not make the same prog- 
ress in the northern that it did in the southern provinces, 
where the soil, climate and plantation system, all favored the 
employment of the African. Nevertheless the slaves were, 
as a general thing, treated with more kindness and care in 

23* 



270 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1750 

New England than they were in the South, as being considered 
more in the light of apprentices. In 1750, there were about 
1000 slaves in Boston ; while in Newport, Rhode Island, which 
was then the principal shipping-port of New England, the 
ratio to the white population was even greater than in the 
former city. Newport rum was exchanged on the African 
coast for negroes to be sold to the southern colonies; and 
ships from Boston and New York embarked in the same un- 
righteous traffic. 

A Congregationalist pastor of Newport, Dr. Saml. Hopkins, 
having frequently witnessed, close to his house, the landing of 
cargoes of negro slaves, boldly rebuked his congregation for 
the sin in which they were so deeply engaged. In 1770, and 
for six years thereafter, he continued to visit the masters from 
house to house, urging them to give liberty to their bondsmen. 
So greatly blessed were his labors, that the church of which 
he was a member, decided before the end of the century, 
that the holding of slaves would not be tolerated amongst 
them. 

In Pennsylvania, the custom of slave-holding found many 
opponents among the Friends ; and it is noteworthy that the 
first protest of a religious body against negro slavery was 
one drawn up in 1688 by Francis Daniel Pastorius, a Ger- 
man Friend of Germantown. The protest was adopted by 
the members there, and forwarded to the "Yearly Meeting" 
at Philadelphia. The eccentric Benjamin Lay, who had wit- 
nessed the horrors of slavery in the Barbadoes, was zealously 
opposed to the system. The labors of John Woolman and 
Anthony Benezet, were of marked effect upon the whole 
body of Friends, who, when persuaded that the practice was 
morally unlawful, rested not until the evil was eradicated from 
the borders of their religious society. Benjamin Franklin was, 
from an early period in his public career, a decided advocate, 
with Friends, of emancipation. 



I750] SLAVES AND REDEMmONERS. 271 

At the Yeaily Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia and vicinity, 
held in 1758, so impressive and convincing were the remarks made 
by Woolman upon the practice of slave-holding, that it was agreed 
to appoint a committee to visit, and to entreat with, such of the 
members within the limits of the meeting as kept slaves. Their 
labors were attended with excellent results, — many who held 
slaves being willing to set them at liberty. In 1774, the Yearly 
Meeting issued its testimony against the practice, and in 1776, the 
subordinate meetings were directed to deny the right of membership 
to such as persisted in holding their felloiv-fnen as property : a worthy 
Declaration indeed for that year of Independence! Furthermore, 
conceiving that some reparation was due to those who had been 
held in bondage, many of the former owners of such, agreed to pay 
them for past services according to an award to be made by arbi- 
trators. Meanwhile Woolman, following the call of duty, had 
visited New England, and at the Yearly Meeting for that section, 
held at Newport (1760), finding that several Friends were concerned 
in the slave trade, he proclaimed with kindly and yet most earnest 
utterances, the sinfulness of the practice. The same result ensued 
as at Philadelphia, for (says Whittier) "wherever he went hard 
hearts were softened, avarice and love of power and pride of opinion 
gave way before his testimony of love." Such are the true con- 
quests of Christianity ! In the space of twenty years there were 
no slaves known to be held by members of New England Yearly 
Meeting. These also made restitution for former services. The 
like course was adopted in New York ; and finally, in Virginia, 
where slavery had its strongest hold in the Society, the evil was 
peacefully abolished. 

In the middle colonies, from New York to Virginia, the 
importation of indentured white servants was extensively 
carried on. These servants were also known as " Redemp- 
tioners," and their term of service was limited bylaw, seldom 
or never exceeding seven years. In Virginia, upon the expi- 
ration of his term, the redemptioner was entitled to a grant of 
fifty acres of land, the same as any other immigrant. But the 
condition of poverty, and especially of ignorance, in which 
they were kept, as a class, tended to retain them even when 
freed, in a reduced and subject state. The name " soul- 



272 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1750 

drivers" was given to a certain set of men, who made it a 
business to purchase the redemptioners in lots from captains 
of ships, and to drive them about the country like cattle, dis- 
posing of them to the farmers, with whom they worked out 
the term of service necessary to pay for their passage-money. 
It has been mentioned above that New England rum, espe- 
cially that of Newport, was a medium largely employed to 
obtain slaves, with which to stock the southern plantations. 
This rum was produced by the distillation of molasses, mostly 
obtained from the French West India islands, and on which 
the New England traders paid no duty. In order to stop this 
traffic, and to compel the colonies to get their supply of sugar, 
molasses and rum, from the British West Indies, the English 
parliament passed a law known as the Molasses Act, by whicli 
a heavy duty was imposed upon all importations of those pro- 
ducts from the French or Dutch islands. Nevertheless, this 
act was constantly evaded, not only by smugglers, but by the 
whole mercantile body of the colonies. 

Perhaps it may seem to some, upon a casual view of the case, not 
to have been very wrong for the merchants to get their sugar and 
syrup where they chose. So far, indeed, they were perfectly right. 
But when tlie government, for purposes of its own — utterly selfish 
withal as those purposes were — saw proper to impose a tax on the 
commodities in question, then it became the duty of the citizen to 
pay the same, even though by so doing he realized no profit from 
their sale. The case is altered, however, when the question of a 
scruple of conscience is presented ; for it is necessary to keep 
clearly in view the distinction between a law that is simply oppres- 
sive, and another that ofifends the conscience, — in other words, one 
which we cannot obey without offending God, and thus committing 
sin. Hence a person who is conscientiously opposed to military 
service may properly refuse to bear arms, because he will feel that 
if he takes the life even of his country's enemy, he is committing a 
grievous sin ; but he will have no right, even though he honestly 
believe that free trade will best promote the prosperity of his 
country, to attempt to smuggle goods into his warehouse, contrary 
to the law 



«753] FOURTH INTERCOLONIAL WAR. 273 

FOURTH INTERCOLONIAL WAR. BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 

By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, commissioners 
were to be appointed to settle the boundary between the Eng- 
lish settlements and those of Acadie. It was the wish of the 
French to restrict the English to the peninsula of Nova Scotia 
and to the country west of the Penobscot river. In the inter- 
vening territory between Nova Scotia and the Penobscot, 
several French military posts were established. The English 
about the same time (1749) began to construct the fortress of 
Halifax, as a check to Louisburg. It received its name from 
the Earl of Halifax, first commissioner of the Board of Trade 
and Plantations. To this Board the English government 
committed the superintendence of American affairs ; its duty 
being to make recommendations to one of the two secretaries 
of state. The secretary in important matters consulted with 
the king or with parliament. 

A second section of country, for the possession of which 
both the English and French began to manifest a dangerous 
rivalry, was that between Lake Erie and the Ohio. As many 
as sixty posts were at this time possessed by the French along 
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi ; while they had also se- 
cured the friendship of the Indian tribes of Canada and the 
West. But immediately after the treaty, an English corpora- 
tion, called the Ohio Company, composed mostly of London- 
ers and Virginians, obtained a grant of 500,000 acres of land 
on and near the Ohio river, together with the exclusive privi- 
lege of the Indian traffic. On the Monongahela, much to the 
disquiet of the French, a trading-post was established by the 
company. This was resented by the capture of a number of 
English traders by the French, who likewise determined to 
further strengthen their claims by building a large post (1753) 
at Presque Isle — now Erie — and smaller trading-posts in the 
neighboring interior. 



274 HISTORY OF -J HE UNITED STATES. [1754 

Governor Robert Dinwiddle, of Virginia, apprised of these 
active movements of the French, sent an envoy, the young 
George Washington, to demand the release of the captured 
traders, and to inquire by what right the French were en- 
croaching on that region. Washington was then but twenty- 
one years of age, and by occupation wa's a land-surveyor, 
resident in the county of Westmoreland on the "Northern 
Neck." 

While Washington was absent on his mission, Dinwiddie 
ordered a fort to be erected at the point of land where the 
Alleghany and Monongahela rivers meet, to form the Ohio. 
But the French interfered, drove off the construction party, 
and they themselves began to build a fort, which, in honor 
of the governor-general of Canada, was called Fort Du 
QuESNE. Washington, upon his return, was sent with a de- 
tachment to resist the attempt of the French, but was over- 
powered by the latter at the Great Meadows, and forced to 
capitulate. All this occurred in the year i 754, and marked 
the beginning of a final terrible struggle between the two powers 
for the control of the continent : a struggle in whicli Canada 
depended largely on aid from France and alliance witli the 
Indians. The whole population of New France, from I.ouis- 
burg to New Orleans, was then but about 100,000, while that 
of the English exceeded twelve times that number. 

About the middle of the year, there was held at Albany, an 
important council of commissioners from all the colonies north 
of the Potomac, to concert measures of defence, and to treat 
with the Six Nations and their allies. At this assembly there 
was introduced a plan, chiefly devised by Franklin, for a 
federal union of the English-American colonies, which were 
to be represented in a great council by their chosen delegates. 
A president-general was to be named and supported by the 
king, and the capital city was to be at Philadelphia. Yet the 
proposition was not entirely acceptable either to Great Britain 



1755] THE FRENCH NEUTRALS OF ACAD IE. 275 

or America, and after causing considerable discussion, then 
and subsequently, it was finally rejected. 

General Braddock having been appointed commander- 
in-chief of the English forces, sailed (1755) for America with 
2000 regular troops, and landing at the little town of Alex- 
andria on the Potomac, proceeded up that river to Cumberland. 
Being joined by a body of the provincials, and, through the 
co-operation of Franklin, furnished with wagons and horses, he 
slowly advanced through the wilderness toward the mountains. 
The opening of a road for the passage of the artillery and 
wagons proved to be an exceedingly laborious work, and con- 
sumed much time. Impatient at the delay, the commander 
pushed on in advance with a part of the troops, but when 
within five miles of Fort Du Quesne, they fell into an ambus- 
cade of the French and Indians. Braddock and many of his 
men were killed, the military stores were abandoned to the 
enemy, and the surviving troops hastily retreated, — the rear 
being protected by Washington, who had accompanied Brad- 
dock in the capacity of aid-de-camp, and now took command 
of the Virginia troops. 

THE FRENCH NEUTRALS OF ACADIE. 

The upper part of the bay of Fimdy divides into the two 
tributary bays or basins of Minas and of Beau-Bassin. Around 
these waters, and upon the fertile banks of the broad river of 
Annapoli'S — another estuary of the bay of Fundy — were clus- 
tered the quiet hamlets of the French settlers. These settlers, 
amounting in number to 12,000 or more, were known by tlie 
name of the "French Neutrals;" and, altliough by the treaty 
of Utrecht forty years before, Acadie had been ceded to the 
British and its name changed to Nova Scotia, yet were these 
colonists permitted, in accordance with their choice, to retain 
their homesteads, exempt from fighting the battles of either 
nation. 



276 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1755 

The peacefulness and serenity which marked those happy 
abodes have often been celebrated in song and story. But, 
uijhappily for its continuance, a number of the young Aca- 
dians, who were forced into the French service upon the 
breaking out of the war, were taken prisoners. They formed 
part of the garrison of a fort which had been captured by an 
army of provincials from Massachusetts, sent to break up the 
posts of the French in the debatable territory between the 
Penobscot and Nova Scotia. 

To arrange some scheme by which the Acadian settlers 
might be got rid of, and the trouble and expense of keeping 
garrisons among them be saved, the lieutenant-governor of 
Nova Scotia consulted with Admiral Boscawen and Mostyn, 
commanders of the English fleet. Notwithstanding it had 
been agreed, at the capture of the fort above spoken of, that 
the neighboring French inhabitants should not be disturbed, 
the result of the conference was, the devising of a plan for 
kidnapping the Acadians, and transporting them to the various 
British colonies. Upon divers pretexts the people were in 
one day assembled together in their chapels, and these being 
quickly surrounded by troops, the inmates were made pris- 
oners and hurried on board the transports. Furthermore, 
that there should be either a complete surrender or the alter- 
native of starvation, the growing crops were destroyed, and 
houses, barns and all their contents were given over to the 
flames. This ruthless deed was consummated in the harvest- 
time of 1755. 

In the confusion and haste of forcible embarkation, many 
were the children who were separated from parents — wives 
from husbands — and dear friends parted, never to see each 
other again. Then in poverty and utter misery, they were 
landed at the ports of all the British-American colonies, 
among strangers and haters of their name and religion ; and, 
although their sorrows sometimes won for them considerate 



1755] THE MARQUIS OF MONTCALM. 277 

attention, yet in most cases the colonial assemblies endeavored 
to remove them as quickly as it could be effected. A few 
made their way to France, and some to Canada, Louisiana, 
or other of their country's colonies ; but the greater part, 
heart-sick or overcome by dejection and despair, ended their 
days in exile. 

The plea of expediency, while it is a prolific incentive to war- 
fare, has also been used as the cloak of many a dark deed of cruelty. 
Such was Napoleon's excuse for the massacre of the 4000 Arabs 
of Jaffa. Those unfortunates had surrendered upon the promise 
given them by two officers of Napoleon's staff that their lives would 
be spared. But upon a council of war being held, at which it was 
stated that some of the prisoners were men who had violated their 
paroles, it was decided at length that as provisions were scarce, and 
as troops could not be spared either to guard them or to convey 
them to French territory, it would be most expedient that they should 
every one be shot. With their hands tied behind their backs, they 
were led down to the bottom of the sand-hills by the sea-shore, and 
for five hours the soldiers fired a continuous volley of death into 
the dense mass of humanity, until not an Arab was left alive. "The 
returning tide washed the blood of this murdered host from the 
sands of Joppa, but no tide will ever wash their blood from those 
French executioners and this soldier-god !" 



THE MARQUIS OF MONTCALM. 

Upon the death of Braddock, Governor Shirley of Massa- 
chusetts became commander-in-chief of the English forces. 
With troops from New England and New York, he erected 
(1755) strong defences at Oswego on Lake Ontario, and, after 
making great preparations, was about to embark for the pur- 
pose of attacking the French fort at Niagara; but in conse- 
quence of the approach of winter, the scantiness of suj)plies, 
and the continued prevalence of storms, the expedition was 
abandoned. 

To Johnson, the Indian agent, was given the command of 

24 



278 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1756 

an expedition which was to attack Crown Point on Lake 
Champlain. The French general, Count Dieskau, had as- 
cended the lake to its southern extremity, and there landed 
his troops. These encountered and defeated a body of the 
English and their Mohawk allies, near Lake George; but in 
a subsequent attack upon Johnson's camp, they were them- 
selves overcome, with the loss of a thousand men. Dieskau 
himself was mortally wounded. 

Meanwhile the Delawares and Shawnees, in alliance with 
the French, committed great depredations on the border set- 
tlements of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Along 
the whole frontier, from the upper Delaware to the Potomac, 
was seen the blaze of burning farm-houses and villages. \\\ 
Pennsylvania loud was the call "to arms." Large rewards 
being offered for Indian scalps, many of the Friends who 
were in the assembly either resigned their places or declined 
re-election, as they could not unite with the people in pro- 
viding means to carry on the contest. The French had all 
along expressed a desire to come to terms, but asked as a con- 
dition that the English should restore the merchant ships 
which in great numbers tbey had piratically seized in a time 
of peace; yet this the latter refused to do, and so the war went 
on. It raged also in Europe, — being known in history as that 
"Seven Years' War," in which Frederick, called the Great, 
was the ally of England. 

In the following year (1756) the Earl of Loudoun was 
sent over to America to take the chief command of the army, 
with authority superior to the colonial governments, and with 
permission to keep and quarter the king's troops in private 
houses, if need be, without the consent of the assemblies. 
Thus began the royal military rule of the provinces, which 
continued to prevail for the succeeding twenty years, until the 
breaking out of the Revolutionary war. 

A large force was organized at Albany, but in the meantime 



1757] THE MARQUIS OF MONTCALM. 279 

the Marquis of Montcalm, Dieskau's successor, crossed 
Lake Ontario with 5000 French and Indians, and cai)tured 
the forts at Oswego, together with the garrison and stores, 
and also the vessels which had been built the year before for 
the Niagara expedition. To please the Six Nations and secure 
their neutrality, Montcalm destroyed the Oswego forts, to 
the existence of which in their territory the Indians had been 
averse from the first. 

In the campaign of the next year (1757), Montcalm was 
again successful. With 8000 men, including the garrisons of 
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, he ascended Lake George to 
its southern extremity, and laid siege to Fort William Henry. 
The garrison, 2000 in number, expected aid from General 
Webb, who, with a much larger force, was at Fort Edward, 
fourteen miles distant. This aid being withheld, the garri- 
son agreed to surrender, with the understanding that they 
should be fully protected. But the Indian allies of Mont- 
calm, eager for plunder, and overcome by liquor obtained 
in the fort, fell upon the English, of whom many were massa- 
cred, although the greater number either fled back to the 
French, or, .after many hardships and wanderings, finally 
reached Fort Edward. Montcalm, ordering Fort William 
Henry to be demolished, embarked his troops and Indians. 
The Canadians returned home to gather in their harvests, and 
the beautiful lake — called in the Indian dialect, Horicon, or 
Silver Water — was left once more to its primeval solitude. 

A band of two hundred men from Carolina had penetrated 
to the region of the upper Tennessee (1756) and built Fort 
Loudoun. They now found the Cherokees wavering, and 
divided in sentiment. "Use all means you think proper," 
wrote Governor Lyttleton, of Carolina, " to induce our In- 
dians to take up the hatchet. Promise a reward to every man 
who shall bring in the scalp of a Frenchman or one of the 
French Indians." 



28o HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1750 

DAVID ZEISBERGER, THE MORAVIAN. 

For his success at the battle of Lake George, the Indian 
agent Johnson received the honor of knighthood ; whilst 
among the French, the name of the Marquis of Montcalm was 
heralded with many plaudits. Nevertheless, it is said of 
men, "Ye shall know them by their fruits:" and, again, " A 
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." Whether the work 
of the French and the English leaders in stimulating the 
worst passions of the Indians, was work for a Christian to do, 
or for Christian people to applaud, the reader can determine 
for himself. He beholds the evil fruit — the revenge and ra- 
pine, the devouring flames, and the hideous deeds of slaughter 
— and may readily decide whether such things as these have 
any part in the religion of the Christian, and whether glory 
such as this is of a sort acceptable in the sight of God. 

Now while Johnson and Montcalm were thus teaching the 
red men lessons of life and death such as Christ and his 
Apostles never taught, a greater hero than English knight or 
French marquis, was laboring zealously, patiently, lovingly, 
in the path of Eliot and Brainerd, striving to. instruct the 
Indians in a far more excellent way. The name of this worthy 
was David Zeisberger, a Moravian. He had heard of the 
active interest manifested by Oglethorpe in the Moravian 
colony of Georgia, and though yet a boy, came over to the 
province just before the breaking out of the war with Spain. 
He was one of the number who departed thence in White- 
field's sloop for the Forks of the Delaware ; and, shortly after 
his arrival, felt called to devote his life to the spread of the 
Gospel among the aborigines. 

Zeisberger spent a number of years at the several mission- 
stations of his brethren ; at Shamokin, near the Forks of the 
Susquehanna, on the upper Lehigh, and in the valley of 
Wyoming — mostly among the Shawnees, the Delawares, the 



1755] DAVID ZEISBERGER, THE MORAVIAN. 281 

newly-arrived Nanticokes, and the Monseys or Minisinks. 
Having been adopted into the Turtle clan of the tribe of the 
Onondagas, he went in 1750, with a single companion, on an 
embassy to the Six Nations, to solicit permission to maintain 
a mission among them, as the French Jesuits had done years 
before. Their wilderness-journey was attended with many 
hardships and dangers, yet still greater perils awaited them 
when they arrived at the capital village of the Senecas. From 
afar they heard the shouting of the savages, frenzied with 
the liquor which white traders had sold them. Affrighted at 
their repulsive reception — the awful laughter, the yells, and 
the heathen abominations — they sought refuge in the loft of 
one of the low houses ; but at the first opportunity escaped 
through a hole in the roof, and made their way to the neigh- 
boring country of the Onondagas — to the central council-fire 
of the Six Nations. 

The Indian council complied with the request of Zeisberger 
to establish a mission, but unfortunately for its prospect of 
good service, the war with France soon interfered with its 
operations, and the Indians were easily drawn aside into the 
war-path. At Gnadenhiitten on the Lehigh, nearly all of the 
missionaries, with their families, were massacred in the autumn 
of 1755, shortly after the defeat of Braddock. 

At an Indian treaty held at Carlisle, a little later, one of the Iro- 
quois chiefs, speaking in behalf of all the Indians present, expressed 
himself to the following effect : "The rum ruins us. We beg that 
you would prevent its coming in such quantities, by regulating the 
traders. We never understood the trading was for whiskey. We 
desire it may be forbidden, and none sold in the Indian country ; 
but that if the Indians will have any, they may go amongst the 
inhabitants and deal with them for it. When those whiskey traders 
come, they bring 30 or 40 kegs, put them down before us and make 
us drink, and get all the skins that should go to pay the debts we 
have contracted for goods bought of the fair traders ; and by these 
means we not only ruin ourselves, but others too. These wicked 
24* 



282 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1763 

whiskey dealers, when they have once got the Indians in liquor, 
make them sell their very clothes from their backs. In short, if 
this practice is continued, we must be inevitably ruined. We most 
earnestly, therefore, beseech you to remedy it." 

Once more, in 1763, when prosperity seeiTied ready again 
to smile on the missions, that widely-extended combination 
of the Indian tribes, known as the Conspiracy of Pontiac, 
frustrated the benevolent hopes of Zeisberger and his coadju- 
tors. The Moravian Indians were then unjustly accused of 
being in league with Pontiac's warriors. Special bitterness 
was exhibited toward them by the Scotch-Irish settlers on the 
Pennsylvania frontier, who professed to believe that the In- 
dians were the Canaanites of the New World, and that the 
existing war had come upon the colonies as a judgment for 
failing to totally exterminate the native tribes. The Moravian 
Indians were precisely in the same strait as were the Praying 
Indians of Massachusetts when the war with Philip of Poka- 
noket was raging. 

In order that these Indians (one of whom was accused of 
a murder) might be safe from the deadly threats of their 
enemies, it was ordered that they should deliver up their rifles 
and allow themselves to be brought to Philadelphia. This 
was accordingly done. They were marched to the military 
quarters, but the soldiers, with levelled muskets, threatened to 
kill them, if they were not taken away. Imprecations and 
revilements were poured out upon the refugees, and the streets 
" rang with yells and shouts which sounded as fierce as the 
war-whooj) of the savages." Meantime, Zeisberger and the 
other missionaries stood faithfully by them, while many of the 
Friends, indifferent to the scorn of the rabble, took the In- 
dians by the hand and addressed them as brethren. Neverthe- 
less, as a measure of safety, the Indians were quickly removed 
to an island in the river. Several hundred Scotch-Irish from 
near Lancaster — the " Paxton Boys" they were called — after 



1781] DAVID ZEISBERGER, THE MORAVIAN. 2S3 

butchering a number of Conestoga Indians who had taken 
refuge in a jail, marched toward Philadelphia, threatening to 
exterminate the refugees there ; but they were finally induced 
to desist from their murderous intent. 

Several months later (1764), when the excitement had sub- 
sided, these Indians were taken to the upper Susquehanna 
region, beyond the Wyoming valley, where they built the vil- 
lage of Friedenshiitten, or " Tents of Peace." This place was 
as neatly laid out as any New England hamlet, being entirely 
surrounded by a post-and-rail fence, every house having its 
garden and orchard, and everything kept scrupulously clean. 
In summer, it was the custom for a party of women frequently 
to pass through the several streets and alleys, sweeping them 
with brooms and removing the rubbish. 

In 1768 and 1770, Zeisber'ger established stations among 
the Monseys, on the Alleghany and Beaver rivers. A little 
later, these and the converts from the Susquehanna, were 
concentrated in several settlements in the valley of the Tusca- 
rawas, in eastern Ohio, and for ten years the Moravian missions 
flourished greatly, being frequented by hundreds of natives, 
some even from the far west. But in 1781, near the close of 
the American revolution, a body of hostile Delawares, under 
Captain Pipe, a chief, and of Wyandottes under their " Half- 
king," at British instigation broke up the peaceful settlements, 
and carried the Indians off to Sandusky, and their teachers to 
the British head-quarters at Detroit.. 

But a far worse catastrophe befel this people the next year, 
when a party of them came back to the Tuscarawas valley to 
harvest the corn which had been left standing in the fiekls. 
Their return happened at the time of the murder of a settler 
and all his family by a band of hostile Indians. The event 
caused such an excited and unreasoning feeling to prevail 
among the frontiersmen, that a company was speedily organ- 
ized to proceed to the Tuscarawas valley, and to punish the 



284 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [17S1 

Moravian Indians as spies and abettors of tlie murder. The 
commander of the expedition was named David Williamson. 
Dissembling their real purpose, they greeted the Indians in 
a friendly manner, and informed them that they had come to 
carry them to a place of safety, where they would be well taken 
care of; that the whites would also take charge of their guns, 
for safe-keeping; and that it would be best to burn down the 
houses to prevent their harboring any warriors. 

The Indians, to the number of ninety, being now at the 
mercy of the Americans, they were readily made prisoners, 
and a council was held to decide upon their fate. It was 
promptly determined that they should all be put to death; 
though some further debate ensued as to whether it would be 
])referable to set fire to the two large houses in which the cap- 
tives were kept, and burn them alive, or whether to tomahawk 
and scalp them, so that the militia might carry back with them 
some trophies of the campaign. The latter plan had the 
preference. The Christians being informed of their doom, 
began to sing, and to pray, and to comfort one another. 
Thus the night went by, and when the morning broke the 
militia selected two buildings which they called "slaughter- 
houses," in which they carried out their awful purpose: the 
men and boys were butchered in one — the women and babes 
in the other. There were in all 29 men, 27 women and 34 
children, who thus perished at the Massacre of Gnaden- 
HiJTTEN, the "Tents of Grace!" Which were Christ's sol- 
diers? which were the conquerors? and with whom was the 
glory ? 

Although greatly cast down by the news of the massacre, 
Zeisberger did not relax his endeavors to civilize and make 
Christians of the Indians, being mostly engaged in the neigh- 
borhood of Sandusky and Detroit, and in Canada at a flour- 
ishing station which was named Fairfield. After the lapse of 
sixteen years, some of the converts, led by Zeisberger, returned 



1757] CANADA CONQUERED FROM THE FRENCH. 285 

to the Tuscarawas. For awhile the new settlement prospered. 
A memorial was presented to the governor of Ohio, asking 
for the passage of a bill prohibiting any spirituous liquors to 
be offered for sale or barter in any town of the Indians; but 
in consequence of the influx of settlers upon the reservation 
the prohibitory law could not be carried out. Not only 
passing traders, but the near neighbors, tempted the Indians 
in every possible way, waylaying them in the forest while 
hunting or engaged in other pursuits, and, having supplied 
them with liquor, would lure them into bargains very much to 
their disadvantage. Zeisberger died in 1808, having been 
sixty years a faithful laborer among the Indians. The Tus- 
carawas valley was soon forsaken by the red men, who retired 
first to Canada, and eventually to the Moravian mission-station 
in Kansas. 



CANADA CONQUERED FROM THE FRENCH. 

We must now turn back to the events which immediately 
succeeded the successes of Montcalm in 1756 and 1757, when 
the French power prevailed throughout all the territory of the 
St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi and their tribu- 
tary streams. Three principal routes, along which were forti- 
fied posts, connected the St. Lawrence with the Mississippi. 
The nearest to the English frontier was that via Erie, Fort 
Du Quesne and the Ohio ; the second, by way of the Mau- 
mee and the Wabash ; the third, by the route of the Illinois. 
If the reader will examine his map, he will observe that the 
intercommunication by water was very nearly continuous in all. 

In truth the French claimed, and appeared to control, 
twenty times as much of the American continent as did the 
English, who were now confined to the peninsula of Nova 
Scotia and a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast from the 
Penobscot to the St. Mary's of Florida, averaging about 200 



286 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1758 

miles in width. But the French domain was very sparsely 
occupied, and when, after the victory on Lake George, the 
Canadian soldiers went back to their homes, there was but a 
slight harvest gathered, and a general famine threatened. Beef 
and bread and similar necessaries of life, were so scarce that 
great numbers of horses were distributed for food. Artisans 
and laborers became too weak to follow their daily occupations. 

On the other hand, there had been a change in the English 
ministry, by which William Pitt (afterward Lord Chatham) 
a man very popular with the Americans, had been placed 
at the head of the administration. 30,000 regular troops 
were sent across to America. The same number of militia 
having been raised in the colonies, three expeditions were 
planned for the year 1758, to wit, against Louisburg, Fort 
Du Quesne and Ticonderoga, respectively. General Aber- 
CROMBIE was appointed commander-in-chief, to succeed the 
Earl of Loudoun. 

Abercrombie himself led the attack on Ticonderoga, a 
strong fortress situated south of Crown Point, on the long 
river-like prolongation of Lake Champlain, from whence a 
short diverging channel connects its waters with those of Lake 
George. But Montcalm, who commanded the garrison, re- 
pulsed the English, inflicting upon them a heavy loss. A 
detachment of Abercrombie's defeated army, under Colonel 
Bradstreet, then ])roceeded against Fort Frontenac, at the 
eastern outlet of Lake Ontai-io, — the post at which the voyager 
La Salle was stationed prior to his eventful expedition of dis- 
covery to the Mississippi. Although well supplied with cannon 
and mortars, it surrendered the second day to the army of 
Bradstreet. 

The expedition against Louisburg was led by Generals Am- 
herst and Wolfe, assisted by the fleet of Admiral Boscawen. 
The investing force greatly exceeded that of the garrison, the 
latter, with the mariners, numbering less than 6000 men. 



1759] CANADA CONQUERED FROM THE FRENCH. 287 

After a siege of several weeks the fortress capitulated, and, as 
a consequence, both the islands of Cape Breton and Prince 
Edward's became British possessions; while Louisburg, being 
no longer of value to its captors, was deserted and fell into 
decay, Halifax becoming the naval station. 

The third main expedition, that directed against Fort Du 
Quesne, was placed under the command of General Forbes, 
who was assisted by Colonels Armstrong and Washington. 
The army proceeded slowly, harassed by parties of the French 
and Indians, and opening a wide road as they went, — the same 
which is now the line of the Chambersburg and Pittsburg 
turnpike. Upon arriving at the Ohio, they found that the 
French, without awaiting a siege, had deserted the fort and 
set it on fire. In honor of the English minister the place was 
then called Fort Pitt or Pittsburg. Stimulated by these 
successes, and the promise of the English government to re- 
imburse them for their expenses, the colonies were ready the 
following year to undertake the conquest of Canada, agreeably 
to the programme of Pitt, 

Early in the spring of 1759, a powerful fleet, conveying an 
army which had been placed under the command of the young 
General Wolfe, sailed from England for the St. Lawrence, and 
at the same time General Amherst (Abercrombie's successor) 
advanced, with a co-operating force, along Lake Champlain. 
The French garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point there- 
upon withdrew from those posts, and went to the relief of 
Montreal and Quebec. The latter city, which is divided 
into an upper and lower town, was very strongly fortified with 
munitions of defence, and had also a garrison of about 10,000 
men ; but the English army having succeeded in scaling the 
cliffs at night, and in reaching the plains or " Heights of 
Abraham," in the rear of the city, it soon fell into their hands. 
The struggle was a sanguinary one, and Wolfe and Montcalm 
both fell, mortally wounded. In the following winter, the 



288 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1760 

English garrison who held possession of Quebec, suffered 
greatly from lack of fresh provisions, as many as a thousand 
soldiers dying of the scurvy. 

While Quebec was being besieged, another division had at- 
tacked and obtained possession of the French fort at Niagara. 
This result was mainly owing to the influence exercised by 
Sir William Johnson over the Six Nations, in inducing a 
large body of the warriors to break the neutrality which 
most of them had promised to observe toward both the com- 
bating powers. Montreal was now the only place of conse- 
quence yet remaining to the French, and in the following 
year it also succumbed to the combined forces of the English. 
Presque Isle, Detroit and Mackinaw, were included in the 
capitulation, so that Canada became in 1760, as it has ever 
since remained, a province of Great Britain. By the Peace 
OF Paris in r'763, all the northern possessions of the French, 
as well as those east of the Mississippi, were formally con- 
firmed as belonging to the English. Louisiana, west of the 
Mississippi, was given by France to Spain, in payment for aid 
afforded. 

The result of the Seven Years' War, in Europe, has been 
thus summed up: "Thus was arrested the course of carnage 
and misery; of sorrows in private life, infinite and unfathom- 
able; of wretchedness heaped on wretchedness; of public 
poverty and calamity ; of forced enlistments and extorted 
contributions ; and all the unbridled tyranny of military 
power in the day of danger. France was exhausted of one- 
half of her specie ; in many parts of Germany there remained 
not enough of men and of cattle to renew cultivation. The 
number of the dead in arms is computed at 886,000 on the 
battle-fields of Europe or on the way to them." The same 
Seven Years' War also doubled the debt of England. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
GEORGE III. COLONIAL DISCONTENT. 
1760— 1775. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

The colonists had confidently supposed, upon the declara- 
tion of peace with the French, that they would have little to 
fear from the enmity of the Indians. But in this belief they 
were destined to be mistaken. The Indians, it is true, had 
willingly agreed to the establishment of the French forts 
upon Lake Erie and on the Pennsylvania frontier, seeing that 
they were likely to prove an obstacle to English encroach- 
ments upon their hunting-grounds ; but when they saw these 
same posts occupied by the English themselves, the conquerors 
of Canada, they realized with dismay that their own doom 
was approaching. Settlers, with no regard for aboriginal 
rights, were already passing the Alleghanies and locating upon 
their lands. In this extremity they listened with eagerness to 
the emissaries of the great chief Pontiac, of the tribe of the 
Ottawas. 

The nation of the Shawnees, together with the Delawares, 
now dwelt in the region of the Miami and Scioto rivers, 
wliither the latter had emigrated after their expulsion from 
Pennsylvania. Through the instigation of Pontiac, a wide- 
spread conspiracy was entered into between these disaffected 
tribes and the others with which the French had been allied, 
as also with the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations. Upon an 
N 25 289 



290 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1764 

appointed day in the summer of 1763 (it being the 25th 
anniversary of the birthday of King George the Third) a 
simultaneous attack was made along the whole western border. 

The English traders among the Indians were the first vic- 
tims. With but two or three exceptions, they were all killed ; 
for it was begun as a war for retribution, in which the plea 
for mercy should pass unheard. Scalping parties attacked 
the mountain settlements and marked their tracks with blood 
and fire. The forts also, with few exceptions, were captured, 
and the garrisons put to death. All who could escape, fled 
to the eastward and sought shelter in the larger towns. A 
proclamation was issued by John Penn, lieutenant-governor 
of Pennsylvania, offering bounties for the scalps of Indians 
or for their capture. 

In order to repel this fierce onslaught of the Indians, Gen- 
eral Gage, who had succeeded Amherst in the chief command, 
sent two expeditions into their own country. One of these, 
commanded by Colonel Bouquet, was to proceed from Fort 
Pitt into the Ohio region ; the other, under Bradstreet, by 
way of the Great Lakes, was to relieve Detroit, which had 
been closely besieged for several months by the warriors of 
Pontiac. Both of these expeditions were successful. The 
Indians despairing of the accomplishment of their designs, 
consented to a treaty, by which they agreed to deliver up the 
prisoners then in their hands, and thenceforth to permit the 
British to build as many forts as they wished. 

COLONIAL TAXATION. THE STAMP ACT. 

For the purpose of raising in the colonies a revenue to de- 
fray the expenses of the French 7oar, an act was passed by the 
English parliament in 1764, adding to the number of im- 
ported articles liable to pay duty, and also prohibiting iron 
and lumber from being exported to any country except Eng- 



1767] THE STAMP ACT. 291 

land. It was likewise proposed — for the same object of 
liquidating the war expenditure — to impose a stamp tax on 
bills, bonds, leases, and upon all legal documents, according 
to the method long practised in England. But the news of 
the proposed measure was received with great clamor in the 
colonies, it being strenuously objected that no people should 
be taxed without their consent, and without having their rep- 
resentatives in the assembly or parliament which laid the tax. 

Samuel Adams and James Otis, in Massachusetts; Benjamin 
Franklin, in Pennsylvania; and Patrick Henry, in Virginia, 
were outspoken in opposition to the scheme, while petitions 
drawn up by the leading men of several of the colonies, were 
forwarded for presentation to parliament. Notwithstanding 
these remonstrances, the Stamp Act became a law the follow- 
ing year (1765). 

The assembly of Virginia was in session when the informa- 
tion arrived, and adopted strong resolutions in opposition to 
the act. In the Massachusetts assembly similar action was 
taken, and a call was issued for a general Congress of the 
colonies, to be held at New York. Nine of the colonies sent 
delegates, who united in publishing a declaration of their 
rights and grievances, especially complaining of the Stamp 
Act, and insisting that all taxation ought to be imposed by 
their own assemblies. After disgraceful riots and assaults 
upon the crown officers and their property had occurred in 
several of the cities, the obnoxious act which had proved so 
distasteful was repealed. 

Parliament, however, in repealing the Stamp Act, held on 
to the declaration that it had the right to "bind the colonies 
in all cases whatsoever." Hence, another bill was passed in 
1767, imposing a duty on tea, paint, paper, glass, etc., and com- 
missioners were appointed to attend to its collection. Where- 
upon it was agreed by many people in the colonies to discon- 
tinue the importation of British goods, and to make-use only 



292 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1773 

of those articles, absolutely necessary, which could be supplied 
at home. The crown officers having suffered losses in the re- 
cent Stamp Act riots, two British regiments were sent over to 
Boston, and quartered in the town. The result of the first 
year's trial of the new customs-act was a revenue of less than 
^16,000, nearly all of which, however, was required to pay 
the expenses of its collection ; while in addition to that, the 
cost of support of the military amounted to ten times the 
revenue above stated. 

The presence of the troops in Boston was a source of con- 
tinual trouble, the hostile feeling against the military being 
kept bitterly alive by a weekly paper there published. Finally, 
a mob of men and boys, encouraged by the popular sympathy, 
made a practice of insulting and provoking the troops, and 
as a natural result — several minor brawls having first occurred, 
— a more serious collision took place, in which a number of 
the inhabitants were killed and wounded. This encounter, 
which was styled the "Boston Massacre," produced great ex- 
citement throughout the colonies, the inhabitants now being 
divided in sentiment into two parties : the Tories, or those 
who favored the mother country, and Whigs, or opponents of 
parliamentary taxation. 



THE TAX ON TEA. BOSTON PORT BILL. 

The disuse of British goods had so seriously affected the 
trade of the British merchants, at the same time that it favored 
colonial manufactures, that parliament, in response to the peti- 
tions of the merchants, agreed to repeal the duties on all 
articles except that of three pence per pound on tea. This 
was retained, apparently, more for the purpose of insisting 
on the right to impose the tax, tlian because it was likely to 
produce any considerable revenue. Yet the colonists were 
opposed, to the principle, however small the tax, and hence 



1774] BOSTON PORT BILL. 293 

they refused to import any of the article. But in order to 
test their right, Parliament, in 1773, encouraged the East 
India Company to send a cargo of tea to each of the principal 
American ports. 

In New York and Philadelphia, the commanders of the 
ships finding no one willing to receive their cargoes, returned 
with them to England. At Charleston, the tea was indeed 
landed, but allowed to become worthless by being stored in a 
damp warehouse ; while at Boston, a party of young men dis- 
guised as Indians, went on board the vessels, and threw the 
consignment of over 300 chests into the harbor. In conse- 
quence of this and the former riotous proceedings, the city of 
Boston, which was regarded as the chief seat of rebellion, was 
selected by parliament as the special object of its displeasure. 
By an act called the "Boston Port Bill," all intercourse by 
water with that place was interdicted ; the seat of government 
was removed to Salem, and the governor was authorized, in 
cases of treason, to send the accused for trial to England. For 
awhile the people of Boston were deprived, to a great extent, 
of the means of subsistence; but their necessities were soon 
relieved by contributions from various quarters. 

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1774, General Gage, the king's 
commander of the British forces in America, arrived in Boston 
with a commission as governor of Massachusetts ; and shortly 
afterward more troops and military stores were landed. Prom- 
inent men in Massachusetts thereupon formed a committee of 
correspondence, and drew up an agreement called a " Solemn 
League and Covenant," wherein they pledged themselves 
to give up all intercourse with Great Britain until the colo- 
nial rights should be restored. But the general court of 
Massachusetts went farther than this : a militia force was en- 
rolled, officers appointed, and military stores were ordered to 
be collected. 

Finally, in the 9th month (September) of the same year, 

25* 



294 11/ STORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1767 

delegates from eleven of the colonies met at Philadelphia, and 
formed themselves into an assembly known as the Continental 
Congress. It was composed of 55 members, who appointed 
Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, their president. They pre- 
pared a declaration of the rights of the colonies ; agreed to 
continue the plan of non-intercourse with Great Britain ; and 
issued an address to the king, another to the colonies, and a 
third to the English people. But the king, being assured by 
parliament that a rebellion actually existed in Massachusetts, 
the army in Boston was increased to 10,000 men. At this 
time Benjamin Franklin, as the agent of Pennsylvania and 
several other of the colonies, was in England, endeavoring to 
effect a settlement of difficulties with the home government. 
Before referring particularly to his efforts, some reference 
should be here made to a few contemporaneous events in 
several of the colonies. 

OCCURRENCES IN SEVERAL OF THE COLONIES. 

After many vexatious delays and disagreements between the 
proprietaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania respecting the 
division line between the two provinces, it was finally de- 
termined, in 1767, that its course should be in accordance 
with an agreement which had been made 35 years before. 
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two distinguislied mathe- 
maticians and astronomers (who had just returned from the 
Cape of Good Hope, whither they had gone to observe the 
transit of Venus), were designated to run the line, and to 
erect stone pillars at conspicuous points along the same. 
" Mason's-and-Dixon's Line" subsequently became famous, as 
marking the parallel of separation between the free-soil and 
the slave states. 

Although bounded on the east by a large river, and on the 
other three sides by nearly straight lines, Pennsylvania was 



1774] OCCURRENCES IN SEVERAL COLONIES. 295 

involved in a number of other disputes relative to its bound- 
aries. Connecticut people settled on lands in the Wyoming 
valley, in 1762, alleging that their province, by virtue of the 
king's grant to the Plymouth Company, extended westward 
even to the Pacific Ocean. This claim resulted in bloody con- 
flicts with the settlers who held grants from the proprietaries. 
Little' forts were built, hamlets were burned, and goods and 
cattle carried away. The matter was finally referred to the 
king for adjudication. — In 1774, Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, 
granted land-warrants for settlements upon the Monongahela 
river, and in the neighborhood of Pittsburg, asserting that 
that section was no purt of Pennsylvania ; but his settlers were 
driven off, and a serious war between Virginia and the western 
Lidians also ensued. Prominent in this war were the Indian 
chiefs Cornstalk and Logan ; the family of the latter having 
previously, without provocation, all been murdered. — Like 
disturbances arose in the settling of that part of the country 
between the Connecticut and Hudson rivers, now the state of 
Vermont, for which the governors of New York and New 
Hampshire both issued grants. This was also referred to 
England for settlement. 

About the time that Mason's-and-Dixon's line was run, 
an earnest controversy arose in Massachusetts touching the 
legality and the justice of negro slavery. The subject was 
carried for decision to the Superior Court, and in a number 
of suits which ensued, the juries invariably gave their verdict 
in favor of freedom. An important decision of the same 
nature was given in 1772 by the court of King's Bench, in 
I^ondon, before whom had been brought a Virginia slave who 
had come with his master to England. Refusing any longer 
to serve, he had been put on board a vessel to be shipped to 
Jamaica. The court ordered that the black should be dis- 
charged. This important decision served as a precedent in 
all succeeding cases on the soil of Britain. 



296 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1769 

In New Jersey, Maryland and the Carolinas, there were 
many complaints of official extortion, of antagonism to lawyers 
and sheriffs, who, it was alleged, exacted unjust fees and ren- 
dered no account of the same to their superiors in office. The 
trouble from this source was greatest in the middle section 
of North Carolina, a rather barren, unfruitful region, with a 
population mostly poor and illiterate. Under the name of 
"Regulators," they not only refused to pay taxes, but as- 
saulted the judges, lawyers, and all others obnoxious to them, 
and even broke up the session of the court. Governor Tryon 
marched against them with a body of volunteers, and having 
overtaken them at Alamance, near the head-waters of Cape 
Fear river, a battle was fought in the summer of 1771. It re- 
sulted in the death of about 200 of the disaffected ones. Some 
of the prisoners were also executed for high treason. A bitter 
feeling arose as a consequence of this severe retaliatory meas- 
ure, and it was not allayed until Tryon departed for New York 
and a governor succeeded whose conciliatory treatment of the 
malcontents made them his friends. 

While these disturbances were transjiiring, the first settle- 
ments were made within the borders of the present states of 
Tennessee and Kentucky. Emigrants from North Carolina, 
led by James Robinson, crossing the mountain barriers of the 
Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies (1768), settled upon one of 
the headstreams of the Tennessee, on lands obtained from the 
Cherokees. Others soon advanced to the Holston and Clinch 
rivers, and ascending those streams, located in the south-west 
corner of the present state of Virginia. 

From the Yadkin valley of North Carolina, Daniel Boone 
and others, led by an Indian trader, crossed the Cumberland 
mountains (1 769) and reached the head-waters of the Kentucky 
river. From the forest-crowned slopes of the hills, they sur- 
veyed the plains where, at that time, herds of buffalo ranged in 
great numbers. But Boone was captured by the Indians, wlio 



1764] NEGOTIATIONS OF ^FRANKLIN. 297 

little desired any irruption of the whites upon those flimous 
hunting-grounds. Escaping, however, from his captors, the 
adventurous hunter wandered three months in the wilderness, 
but finally reached again his home on the Yadkin. Having 
determined to settle in the region which he had discovered, 
he led a small party down the Clinch river valley, but in con- 
sequence of Lord Dunmore's war with the Indians, a year and 
a half elapsed before their feet pressed the soil of Kentucky. 

NEGOTIATIONS OF FRANKLIN IN ENGLAND. 

When, in 1764, Franklin, the philosopher and statesman, 
proceeded to England as the accredited agent of Pennsylvania 
— and shortly afterward as agent also for others of the colo- 
nies—he was destined to exert a marked influence upon the 
future of those portions of the dominions of Britain which he 
represented. Being^ examined before the House of Commons, 
whose members desired a definite statement of the }>ending 
difficulties, the directness and freedom of his testimony were 
largely instrumental in procuring the repeal of the obnoxious 
Stamp Act. 

By addresses published in the papers of London, giving 
calm and lucid expositions of the effect of English legislation 
upon the commercial industries of the colonies, he endeavored 
to work a change in the tone of feeling toward America. He 
instanced the fact that if American merchants wished to obtain 
commodities direct from a Mediterranean port, these must be 
carried a long voyage out of the way, in order that the cargo 
might be first landed and re- shipped in London, and that thus 
a few favored merchants there might reap their commissions. 
And although iron was found everywhere in x\merica, and 
nails and steel were greatly in demand, he showed how a very 
few manufacturers had obtained an act of parliament, totally 
prohibiting the erection of slitting-mills or steel-furnaces in 

N* 



298 insrORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1775 

the colonies. And in the same manner even the hat-makers 
of England had prevailed to obtain an act in their favor; re- 
straining the business in the colonies in order to oblige the 
Americans to send the beaver-skins to Britain, and buy back 
the made-up hats, increased in price with double-charge of 
transportation. 

These, and many other cogent reasons why the laws of 
trade and of administration for the colonies, sliould be 
altered, were presented by Franklin to the notice of the 
public and the rulers of England during the ten years that he 
remained in that country. And when in the autumn of 1774, 
news arrived of the assembling of an American Congress for 
concert of action, he was unwearied in his efforts, by private 
conversations, by published articles and by letters to states- 
men, to induce the government to change its measures, giving 
it as his belief that notwithstanding the attachment of the 
colonies to the mother country, ytt a continuance in the 
same arbitrary course must alienate them entirely. 

Being urged by Dr. Fothergill and David Barclay, promi- 
nent members of the Society of Friends, in London, he pre- 
pared a careful statement of a plan of reconciliation. William 
Pitt (Lord Chatham) had himself prepared another and some- 
what similar plan, and after several consultations with Franklin, 
it was submitted to parliament, but was by that body hastily 
rejected. Yet Franklin's private interviews with the ministers 
of state and influential citizens did not cease; while Fother- 
gill, Barclay and others, frankly condemning the injustice of 
their own countrymen, were unremitting in endeavors to 
secure a compromise and avoid the effusion of blood. Never- 
theless, their efforts proved unavailing; and Franklin, depart- 
ing from England in the spring of 1775, arrived in America 
only to find that war had been actually begun. 

It is well worth while, at this momentous epoch in our 
country's history, for the student calmly to ask himself: 



1775] NEGOTIATIONS OF FRANKLIN. 299 

What more could America have done, to prevent war, than 
she did do? And, since England, without doubt, was clearly- 
guilty of oppression, as well as of injudicious and unjust 
methods of government, were not the colonies justified in 
resisting their oppressors? Now, if we answer the latter 
question in accordance with the international practice of the 
last fifteen centuries, we may promptly say that the colonies 
Tiiere justified in making war to secure their political rights; 
but on the other hand, if we are to answer it according to the 
Gospel rule, as well as the Christian practice of the first three 
centuries of our era, we must as certainly say that our ances- 
tors had no right to make war upon the plea tliat they were 
unjustly taxed and treated. For, the methods of protest and 
prayer, of appeal and patient endurance of wrong, still re- 
mained open, and such sort alone are the weapons which the 
Christian may use to battle against tyranny. "The weapons 
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the 
pulling down of strongholds." 

Tertullian of Carthage (3d century), thus addresses the 
Christians' persecutors : " For all love those who love them ; 
it is peculiar to Christians alone to love those who hate 
them. . . . And one would think it must be abundantly clear 
to you that the religious system under whose rules we act is 
one inculcating a divine patience; since, though our numbers 
are so great — constituting all but the majority in every city — 
we conduct ourselves so quietly and modestly ; I might perhaps 
say, known rather as individuals than as organized commu- 
nities, and remarkable only for the reformation of our former 
vices." And in another place Tertullian says — " How will a 
Christian man war ; nay, how will he serve even in peace, 
without a sword, which the Lord hath taken away? For the 
Lord, in disarming Peter, unbelted every soldier." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

1775—1783- 



1775. LEXINGTON AND BUNKER HILL. CANADA CAMPAIGN. 

A QUANTITY of ammunition and stores for tlie use of the 
provincial militia, having been deixDsited at Concord, about 
twenty miles west of Boston, General Gage sent a body of 
the king's troops under Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn, to 
seize or destroy them. Upon arriving at Lexington, early in 
the following morning, 4th month (April) 19th, they found a 
body of armed militia assembled upon the common, ready to 
dispute their progress. Refusing to obey the order of Pit- 
cairn to disperse, the latter commanded his troops to fire. 
Eight of the Americans were killed and a number wounded. 
The troops then continued on to Concord and destroyed the 
stores collected there ; but on their return toward Boston 
they were severely harassed by the Americans, who were con- 
cealed' behind barns, trees and stone-walls, and who would 
probably have killed or captured the whole company had re- 
inforcements not arrived. 

The battle of Lexington at once inflamed the passions of 
the people, already at fever-heat, and the war feeling spread 
like wild-fire on every side. It is only requisite, as in the 
case of two individuals who have been taunting each other, 
for one to deliver a blow, to cause that spirit of violent con- 
tention which leads to murder, to break forth uncontrollably. 



1775] BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 301 

An army of 20,000 provincials was quickly mustered, and the 
British troops were closely besieged on the peninsula of Boston. 
Considerable reinforcements, however, under Generals Howe, 
Clinton and Burgoyne soon came to their relief by sea. 

Learning that it was the intention of the British to make 
an advance into the country, the Americans were ordered to 
begin offensive operations by erecting a breast-work on Bun- 
ker's Hill, near the suburb of Charlestown. This was nearly 
completed during the night of the i6th day of 6th month 
(June), but in the morning following, the British perceiving 
what had been done, began a severe cannonade upon the 
entrenchments. Having set fire to Charlestown, they then 
advanced to the attack. Their assault was for awhile repelled, 
but, receiving farther help, the provincials gave way and es- 
caped along Charlestown Neck, where, exposed to the fire 
from the ships, they suffered severely. 

The forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point were, in the 
meantime, captured from the royalists, by militia under Colo- 
nels Ethan Allen and Seth Warner. 

The second Continental Congress being assembled again at 
Philadelphia, the title of the " United Colonies" was adopted. 
George Washington, one of the delegates from Virginia, was 
appointed commander-in-chief of the army ; Artemus Ward, 
Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler and Israel Putnam were chosen 
major-generals, and eight others received appointments as 
brigadiers. Bills of credit to the amount of three million 
dollars were ordered, to provide for the expenses of the war. 

In Virginia, the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, after a 
lengthened dispute with the people, was obliged to seek refuge 
on board a man-of-war. The governors of North and South 
Carolina retired in the same manner, and by the end of 
the year all the old governments of the provinces were dis- 
solved. Dunmore landed several times upon the Virginia 
coast, seeking to regain possession of his province; but being 

26 



302 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1776 

pressed for want of provisions, and the militia at Norfolk re- 
fusing to comply with his demand, he destroyed the town by 
fire and departed for the West Indies. 

Fearing an attack of the British from Canada, of which prov- 
ince Sir Guy Carleton was governor. Congress despatched 
two expeditions in that direction ; one under Generals Schuyler 
and Montgomery, by way of Lake Champlain, and the other 
under Colonel Arnold, by the route of the Kennebec. Mon- 
treal was taken by the force under Montgomery (Schuyler 
himself being ill), but Arnold having been delayed, and his 
men much exhausted by their toilsome march through the 
tangled forests of Maine, did not join the force before Quebec 
until late in the autumn. Their combined, but desperate, 
assault upon the strongly-fortified city was repelled. Four 
hundred of the Americans were killed and wounded, Mont- 
gomery being numbered with the slain. Canada, in a few 
months, was entirely evacuated by the Americans. 

The English parliament, toward the close of the first year 
of the war, passed an act prohibiting all trade and commerce 
with the colonies, and authorizing the capture of the trading- 
vessels of the latter found on the high seas. Treaties were 
likewise entered into with the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel and 
the Duke of Brunswick, who agreed to furnish, for pay, 16,000 
of their subjects to aid the army of Britain in its work of sub- 
jugation. But the petition of Congress to the king, brought 
over by Richard Penn and Henry Lee, was refused a hearing 
by parliament, upon the ground that that Congress was an 
unlawful assembly. 



1776. THE SIEGES OF BOSTON, CHARLESTON, AND NEW YORK. 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Washington, upon receiving his appointment as commander- 
in-chief, repaired at once to the army besieging Boston. In 



1776] SIEGE OF CHARLESTON. 303 

consequence of the lack of supplies and the departure of many 
of the militia whose terms of enlistment had expired, he 
did not make any attack upon the city until the 3d month 
(March), 1776, when he ordered a redoubt to be constructed 
on Dorchester Heights, which menaced not only the soldiers 
in the town, but the ships in the harbor. Sir William Howe, 
the successor of Gage, perceiving that it would be now 
necessary to dislodge the besiegers or to evacuate the city, 
essayed the former ; but, being defeated in his design by a 
tempest of wind and rain, he embarked with all his troops for 
Halifax, and nearly at the same time Washington and his 
army entered. 

To effect the conquest of the southern colonies, a British 
fleet under Sir Peter Parker appeared, early in the summer, 
before the harbor of Charleston. Upon Sullivan's island, at 
the entrance of the port, a fort of sand and palmetto-logs had 
been constructed, and its defence intrusted to Colonel Moul- 
trie. The balls from the cannon of the British fleet readily 
penetrated in part the yielding palmetto-wood, but failed to 
shatter it, while on the other hand the fire from the fort was 
severely felt by the assailants. In the night the British com- 
mander, relinquishing his design, drew off his vessels, and as 
his co-operation was required by the other fleet, which was 
operating against New York, he soon sailed toward that port. 
Washington, foreseeing that the British would make an early 
effort to possess themselves of a place so important to their 
success as was New York, had ordered the construction of 
works of defence, and leaving Boston soon after the British 
evacuation, established his headquarters in the former city. 

A highly important event was about to transpire in the 
Congress, then in session at Philadelpliia. The hostile meas- 
ures which had taken place had produced a very general desire 
in the colonies to renounce allegiance to the mother country. 
This feeling was accelerated by a pamphlet written by Thomas 



304 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1776 

Paine, under the signature of " Common Sense," which was 
designed to show the necessity of a state of independence to 
the well being of the country. By Richard Henry Lee, of 
Virginia, a motion was made in Congress for declaring the 
colonies "free and independent." A committee, consisting 
of Jefferson, Franklin, Sherman, Adams and Livingston, was 
appointed to prepare a Declaration of Imiependence. The 
document was accordingly drafted with great care, and the 
important resolutions being fully discussed, were adopted the 
fourth day of the 7th month (July), 1776. By another com- 
mittee. Articles of Confederation were prepared, but they 
were not adopted until the following year. They conferred 
upon the nation the title of " United States of America," and 
were duly ratified by the governments of the several states. 

It was the aim of the British commanders, by obtaining 
possession of New York, to control the line of the Hudson 
river and Lake Champlain, and thus cut off New England from 
the south. The troops from Halifax under General Howe, 
and those from England under Admiral Howe, landed on 
Staten Island ; and these, together with Hessians, and the 
forces which had besieged Charleston, constituted an army of 
about 30,000 men, being considerably in excess of that of the 
Americans. At this juncture, Lord Howe issued a proclama- 
tion offering pardon to those who would return to their alle- 
giance, and endeavor to restore peace ; but the Americans, 
now aiming at independence, refused to entertain any offers 
of reconciliation. 

In the 8th month (August), a large force of British troops 
landed on the west end of Long Island, in the neighborhood 
of Gravesend, and attacking the American army which was 
commanded by Putnam and Sullivan, defeated them with 
great loss. Washington then ordered Brooklyn to be evac- 
uated, and, removing also from New York, occupied Harlem 
Heights in the upper part of Manhattan island. General 



1776] BATTLES OF TRENTON AND PRINCETON. 305 

Howe now made further overtures of amity, and appointed 
commissioners to meet on Staten Island the three appointed 
by the Americans, to wit, Franklin, Rutledge and Hancock ; 
but as these refused to treat upon any other basis than the ac- 
knowledgment of American independence, there was nothing 
effected. Later in the year Congress commissioned Franklin, 
Silas Dean and Arthur Lee to proceed to the French court 
and procure aid in money, arms and ammunition, as well 
as a recognition of the independence of the United States. 

Leaving General Greene in command of Forts Washington 
and Lee, which were on opposite sides of the Hudson a few 
miles above New York, Washington withdrew a little to the 
eastward to the highlands of White Plains, where he hoped to 
hold possession of an important road. But General Howe 
advancing, compelled his retreat, and, a little later, succeeded 
in capturing both of the Hudson forts. About 2000 Americans 
were taken at the surrender of Fort Washington, — the loss in 
killed and wounded being large on both sides. Washington 
with the remnant of his army then retreated to Newark, and 
through New Jersey to Trenton, whence he escaped across the 
Delaware to the Pennsylvania shore, just as the pursuing army 
under Cornwallis came in sight. 

Howe stationed detachments of his army at Trenton and 
Princeton, and withdrew for the winter to New York, having 
no apprehension of any attack by the Americans unless the 
river should be frozen. Without waiting for that to occur, 
Washington determined, as the enlistments of many of his 
men would expire with the end of the year, to make further 
immediate use of their services, by re-crossing the Delaware in 
boats. The Hessians at Trenton were taken by surprise, and 
many made prisoners. The commander-in-chief followed up 
his success by an attack on the British troops at Princeton, sev- 
eral luindred of whom were captured, and the rest put to flight; 
after which he retired into winter-quarters at Morristown. 

26* 



3o6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1777 



1777. BURGOYNE'S SURRENDER. PHILADELPHIA CAPTURED 
BY THE BRITISH. 

To effect a junction with the British forces at New York, 
and to occupy the line of the Hudson in accordance with the 
previous plan, General Burgoyne with 7000 British and Hes- 
sians, beside Canadian and Indian auxiliaries, passed up Lake 
Champlain and laid siege to Ticonderoga. Finding that the 
fortress could not be held, the Americans uixler General St. 
Clair abandoned the place ; but the escaping garrison was 
pursued and defeated by a body of the invaders, while a large 
part of the stores which had been sent in bateaux to White- 
hall, at the southern extremity of the lake, also fell into their 
hands. Burgoyne then passed on to Fort Edward, a little 
below where the Hudson bends from the west to pursue its 
general southward course. 

While at Fort Edward, Burgoyne being in great need of 
provisions, and hearing that a large quantity of these necessa- 
ries were stored at Bennington, forty miles distant, despatched 
Colonel Baum, with five hundred men, to secure them. But 
the foragers were met and repulsed by the American militia 
under General Stark, who also defeated a second detachment 
which was sent to the relief of the first. Burgoyne with his 
army, leaving Fort Edward, crossed the Hudson and advanced 
to Saratoga; while the Americans under General Horatio 
Gates, encamped at Stillwater in the vicinity of the former. 
Kosciusko, a noted Polish officer, was in the American ser- 
vice as chief engineer. 

On the 19th day of 9th month (September) an obstinate, 
but indecisive, engagement between the two armies occurred 
near Stillwater. This was followed by a number of skirmishes, 
until on the 7th day of loth month a general battle was fought 
at Saratoga. Burgoyne, finding that his army, hemmed in by 
superior numbers, was being overpowered ; that his provisions 



1777] PHILADELPHIA CAPTURED. 307 

had failed, while his troops were worn out by fatigue, was 
finally compelled to capitulate. On the 17th of the month 
his whole army surrendered as prisoners of war to General 
Gates. Sir Henry Clinton, meanwhile, with the forces from 
New York, had captured Forts Clinton and Montgomery, 
near West Point ; but hearing of Burgoyne's surrender, he 
hastily dismantled the forts and went back to New York. 

While these oi>erations were transpiring in the north, the 
army of General Howe and Admiral Howe, 16,000 in number, 
sailed from Sandy Hook for the Chesapeake, and ascending 
to Elk river, at the head of the bay, disembarked, and began 
their march toward Philadelphia, To stay their progress, 
Washington posted his army on the rising ground above 
Chad's-ford of the Brandywine. The British, however, 
forced a passage, and having thrown the Americans into con- 
fusion, caused their defeat after a bloody struggle. A young 
French officer, the Marquis de LAFAYEnE, who had left his 
country to aid the American cause, was wounded in the battle. 
Count Pulaski, a Pole, who had come over with the same 
object as Lafayette, was also present. 

Immediately after the battle of Brandywine, General Howe 
took possession of Philadelphia (9th month 26th), although 
the principal part of his army was encamped at Germantown, 
several miles north of the capital. Washington, thinking 
that he would be able to overpower the British at German- 
town, made an attack, at dawn of loth month (October) 4th. 
The British were thrown into disorder by the unexpected on- 
slaught, but a fog coming on, they had time to recover from 
the first attack, and eventually drove the Americans from the 
field. The latter retired into winter-quarters at Valley Forge, 
on the Schuylkill, twenty miles from the city, where their 
sufferings from cold, nakedness, fever and other diseases, as 
well as from poor and insufficient diet, were deplorable in 
the extreme. 



3o8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1778 



177&. THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. MASSACRE OF WYOMING. 

The winter preceding the campaign of 1778 was marked 
by much disaffection in the army : the depreciation of the 
bills of credit to about a fourth of their nominal value, 
being the chief cause of the trouble. Many of the officers, 
after expending their own means in addition to their pay, 
gave in their resignations. An intrigue was also set on foot 
by Generals Conway, Gates and others, to endeavor to force 
Washington to retire from the chief command ; but that 
measure being opposed to the popular wish, it failed of 
success. Conway was superseded by Baron Steuben, a 
Prussian officer, who had recently entered the American 
service. In the meantime, the news of the capture of Bur- 
goyne having arrived in Europe, the French court, impelled 
by rivalry of England, agreed to acknowledge the independ- 
ence of the United States, and also entered into an alli- 
ance to afford them aid in carrying on the war. Benjamin 
Franklin, the most influential of the three American com- 
missioners, was appointed by Congress minister to the French 
court. 

A fleet of i8 large war vessels commanded by the Count 
D'Estaing,wassent over by the French government, and arrived 
nt the mouth of the Delaware early in the summer. But the 
design of the French commander to blockade the British in 
Philadelphia, was frustrated by their evacuating the city. 
Washington's army, starting in pursuit, intercepted them on 
their way across New Jersey, at Monmouth Court-House, and 
an indecisive battle ensued on a day — 6th month (June) 28th 
— memorable for its excessive heat, and the consequent terri- 
ble sufl"ering of the combatants. The British troops con- 
tinued their retreat to New York, to which port the French 
fleet also sailed. The vessels of the latter, however, being 



1778] MASSACRE OF WYOMING. 



309 



of too great draught to enter the harbor, they were ordered to 
Newport. 

General Sullivan, at the same time, was sent with a large 
army to effect the capture of the British forces on Rhode 
Island; but the French admiral failing to co-operate, the 
American general with difficulty withdrew his army, D'Estaing 
sailed to Boston and then to the West Indies. Toward the 
end of the year, Sir Henry Clinton sent a fleet against Savan- 
nah, and, as the place was unprepared for defence, it soon 
yielded, Clinton also took measures to retaliate on the 
Americans for their depredations upon the British merchant 
shipping; not less than 500 trading vessels having been cap- 
tured by them within two years. In Buzzard's bay and its 
vicinity, where the American privateers resorted, Gray, the 
British general, destroyed sixty large vessels, besides smaller 
craft ; and thence proceeding to New Bedford and Fair 
Haven, executed similar destructive work upon the mills and 
other property at those places. 

The confederacy of the Six Nations having been induced 
in the preceding year to enter the British service, their ma- 
rauding parties had committed extensive depredations, prin- 
cipally within the borders of the state of New York. They 
had also been largely employed in the army of Burgoyne. 
A chief of the Mohawks, named Brandt, received a colonel's 
commission in the British service, and made himself notorious 
by his numerous deeds of devastation and bloodshed. In 
the summer of 1778, a band of the Seneca tribe, with British 
troops and tories, under a leader named John Butler, de- 
scended the Susquehanna and 'destroyed the settlements in 
the Wyoming valley. The able-bodied inhabitants were 
))rincipally absent in the army, but a company of above 
four hundred, principally old men and boys, was mustered ; 
the women and children being placed within a stockade 
fort. 



3IO HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [177S 

Unable to withstand the fierce attack of the allied band, 
many of the Americans yielded themselves prisoners, — the 
rest sought safety in flight ; but in either case all who were 
captured were destined to be massacred. Sixteen of the cap- 
tives were placed in a ring around a rock, and each being 
held by a stout Indian, they were one by one tomahawked. 
Nine persons in another ring were murdered in the same way. 
But the whites were no less sanguinary than the Indians, for 
l)arty-spirit ran high in the valley, and men of the same 
household were arrayed in hateful strife against each other. 
One who was attacked by his own brother, fell upon his knees 
beseeching his assailant that if he would spare his life he 
would serve him as his slave forever; but the unnatural 
brother refused the cry for mercy, and muttering an oath, 
shot him dead ! What a brutal method for determining the 
right or justice of any cause is War ! As the student follows 
in the devastating track of its chariot wheels, how appalling 
grows the recital of the deeds of pillage and blood — how 
hideous the features of hate and cursing and every crime 
which are hidden by the mask of glory, and of patriotism, 
falsely so called ! 

Several of the few survivors of the fight, panting and bloody, 
rushed into the fort where the terrified women and children 
waited, trembling for the issue. Fearful of encountering the 
same fate as the soldiers, these widows and orphans hurried to 
the mountains, and beyond to the Delaware, and finally, after 
much suffering reached their former homes in Connecticut. 
And for days afterward, other companies of sorrow-stricken 
fugitives, leaving their smokihg and ruined homesteads in the 
pleasant valley, crossed that weary wilderness of the Pokono 
mountains which is known as the " Shades of Death," and 
at Stroudsburg found rest and safety. 



1779] GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 31 1 

1779. GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. DEEDS OF REPRISAL. 

The British, being in possession of Savannah, were not long 
in quelling throughout the state of Georgia, the remnant of 
opposition to their authority. As they believed that a large 
proportion of the people of Carolina were royalists at heart, 
emissaries were sent out to prevail on the Tories to join the 
royal standard; and, to niake this co-operation easier, the 
British army under General Prevost was ordered to move up 
the Savannah river to x'Vugusta. Thus emboldened, the Tories 
appeared in considerable numbers ; the Indians also, joining 
with the royalists, there ensued the harrowing barbarities 
of partisan warfare. General Lincoln, the American com- 
mander, after failing in his attempts to regain upper Georgia 
from the British, and fearing lest Charleston also would fall 
into their hands, entreated the Count D'Estaing to render aid 
with his fleet. 

D'Estaing, who in the meantime had been depredating upon 
England's West India possessions, responded to the call, and 
appeared with his vessels in the harbor of Savannah, while 
Lincoln brought up the land forces. The British refusing to 
surrender, batteries were thrown up and armed with cannon 
and mortars. Perceiving, however, that the cannonading was 
distressing the inhabitants more than their foes, the American 
and French forces united, and, on the 9th day of loth month 
(October) made an attempt to capture the place by assault. 
But the undertaking was repelled, with great loss to the allies. 
D'Estaing was wounded and Count Pulaski was killed. Lin- 
coln's army retreated, and the French fleet sailed for home. 

In other quarters the Englisli cause was likewise successful. 
A naval expedition under Sir George Collier and General 
Matthews, sailed into Hampton Roads and devastated Ports- 
mouth and the other towns on or near tlie Eh'zabeth river. 
Large quantities of provisions intended for the American army 



312 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1779 

were seized, and the shipping was either destroyed or removed. 
Verplanck's and Stony Points, below West Point on the Hud- 
son, important by reason of their commanding King's Ferry, 
fell into Clinton's hands. Stony Point was re-captured by a 
force of Americans under General Anthony Wayne, but it 
was soon again in British possession. 

To retaliate the second time on the American privateers, 
and especially on those of Connecticut, which had nearly de- 
stroyed British commerce on Long Island Sound, General 
Tryon, instructed by Clinton, proceeded to New Haven, and 
burnt the shipping in that port. Fairfield, Norwalk and 
Greenwich, on the sound, also received the hostile visitation 
of fire. 

The expedition of General Tryon was bitterly complained 
of by the Americans because of its ruthless destruction of 
private property. Yet the sway of the sword is naught else but 
barbarous and cruel: all its methods are revengeful, and it 
can only thrive as the wicked spirit of retaliation is aroused. 
" An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," is its motto. 
Thus it was in retaliation for the massacre of Wyoming, and 
Other less notable Indian enormities, that General Sullivan 
was sent in the summer of 1779 to invade the country of the 
Six Nations. Forty of their villages upon the Tioga and Gen- 
esee rivers were laid waste, and all their corn and fruit trees 
destroyed. The Indians, however, mostly escaped, and during 
the remainder of the war hovered in small and scattered bands 
upon the frontier settlements, where, with torch and tomahawk 
they wreaked their revenge, and at the same time earned their 
pay as British allies. 

Perhaps the most awful engagement of the war, because of 
the reckless sacrifice of human life involved, was the naval en- 
counter on the coast of Scotland between a squadron of five 
American vessels, commanded by John Paul Jones, and two 
British frigates, under Captain Pearson, acting as convoy to 



17S0] THE BRI'l ISJl IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 313 

a merchant fleet from the Baltic. The American commander 
ran his vessel, the Bon-Homme Richard, so close to the 
frigate Serapis, that the muzzles of the hostile cannon came 
in contact. In this position, the malignant combatants using 
tlieir muskets and pikes, fought ferociously for the space of 
three hours, until both vessels were badly shattered and on 
fire. The magazine of the Serapis having exploded, Pearson 
surrendered. But it was a dreadful " victory" for the Amer- 
icans : of 375 men who were on board the Bon-Homme 
Richard, 300 were either killed or wounded. 

1780. the british in south carolina. arnold and 
andr6. 

The military operations of 1780 were most active in the 
Carolinas, where Sir Henry Clinton, after remaining a short 
time in the vicinity of Savannah, began, in the spring, the 
siege of Charleston. General Lincoln and Governor Rutledge 
commanded the garrison in the city. At Monk's Corner, 
Ninety-Six and other places, detachments of the American 
army were defeated by the British, of whom Colonel Tarleton, 
with his cavalry, was the most active and relentless. Charles- 
ton being completely surrounded, Lincoln was obliged to ca- 
pitulate. Many of the inhabitants also declared their alle- 
giance to the British cause ; and as South Carolina now 
appeared reclaimed to the crown, Clinton, leaving Lords 
Cornwallis and Rawdon in command, returned to New York. 

General Gates, with reinforcements of militia from the 
Southern states, advanced toward the English forces, which, 
with the intention of invading North Carolina, had been 
posted at Camden. Very early in the morning of 8th month 
(August) 1 6th, the advance guards of the opposing armies met, 
each of them being on the way to surprise the camp of the 
other. The American militia recoiled before the British 
o 27 



314 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [ySo 

regulars, and fled in great disorder, Tliey were pursued for 
a distance of over twenty miles, losing about 2000 men in 
killed, wounded and prisoners. Among the killed was the 
Baron de Kalb, a Prussian in the American service. Gen- 
eral Gates retired into North Carolina, leaving Colonels 
Sumter and Marion, who commanded local troops of cavalry, 
to maintain a desultory warfare with the British and their 
tory allies. Cornwallis also advanced across the frontier to 
Charlotte, but a portion of his army under Colonel Ferguson, 
having been decisively repulsed at a woody eminence called 
King's Mountain, the British retired again into South Caro- 
lina. 

About midsummer, 6000 French auxiliaries, under the com- 
mand of the Count de Rochambeau, arrived at Rhode Island, 
where the troops were disembarked, and the armed vessels 
which brought them returned to France. 

An event occurred in the autumn of 1780, which caused a 
profound sensation throughout the country. When General 
Arnold, who was wounded at the battle of Saratoga, was 
obliged to retire from active service, he obtained from Con- 
gress the position of commandant at Philadelphia. Being of 
an extravagant disposition, and living in a style of princely 
display far beyond his means, he was finally led into the dis- 
honest practice of embezzling the public moneys. For this 
offence he was tried by a court-martial and sentenced to receive 
a reprimand from Washington. In revenge for this humilia- 
tion, and to obtain the money which he coveted, Arnold en- 
tered into correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton. It resulted , 
in an agreement to deliver West Point (to the command of 
which place he had been recently appointed) into the hands 
of the English, and at the same time to join the royal army. 

For the purpose of arranging the details of the treacherous 
barter, Clinton sent an aid-de-camp, the young and talented 
Major Andre, to meet Arnold by night, some distance below 



1781] REVOLT IN THE AMERICAN ARMY. 315 

West Point. Daylight dawned before the secret interview 
ended, and as the vessel in which Andre had come had drifted 
down the river, he was obliged to return by land. Near 
Tarrytown he was met by three of the American militia, 
whose suspicions being aroused, they searched their cajjtive, 
and found, concealed in his boots, the papers which proved 
tlie treason of Arnold. Unmindful of Andre's entreaties and 
of the tempting bribes which he offered for his release, the 
three soldiers delivered him to the commanding officer at 
Peekskill. 

Sir Henry Clinton and others were unremitting in their 
endeavors to procure the release of Andre; but Washington, 
acting in accordance with the usages of war, referred his case 
to a court-martial. The captive being sentenced to suffer 
death, was accordingly hung. Arnold managed to escape, 
and received at British hands a guilty reward of ^^10,000 
and the rank of brigadier-general. The nature of the services 
rendered against his country is briefly alluded to in the next 
section. 



1781— 1783. CORNWALLIS SURRENDERS AT YORKTOWN. 
PEACE DECLARED. 

The new year opened with a serious revolt in the army, the 
whole body of Pennsylvania militia refusing to serve any 
longer. They complained that their term of service properly 
expired at the close of the preceding year, and also that they 
were suffering greatly from lack of clothing. But as the gov- 
ernment maintained that they must continue to serve while 
the war lasted, the soldiers seized their arms and began their 
march toward Philadelphia for the purpose of demanding jus- 
tice in the halls of Congress. Clinton endeavored to persuade 
the insurgents to enter the British service, an offer which they 
quickly declined. At Princeton they were met by Generals 



3i6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1781 

Reed and Wayne, who had been appointed by Congress to 
investigate the state of affairs, and to restore tranquillity. 
The soldiers finally agreed not to disband, upon condition 
that they should receive the necessary supplies of clothing, 
their arrearages of pay, and re-imbursement for losses in con- 
sequence of the depreciation of paper money. 

At this time Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, a man of 
large pecuniary means, was appointed treasurer of the United 
States. It was through his knowledge of financial concerns ; 
by the free use of his own private resources ; and by the es- 
tablishment of the national " Bank of North America," that 
the government credit exhibited an improvement. France 
and Holland also made large loans to the republic. But 
the Continental money, which had been issued to carry on 
the war, and which it was an almost treasonable offence to 
refuse, had become nearly worthless, — five dollars of such 
scarcely sufficing to purchase five pennies' worth (sterling 
value) of produce. 

In the south, General Greene had been appointed Gates' 
successor. A part of his troops, under Colonel Morgan, were 
attacked by Tarleton's cavalry at a place called the Cow- 
pens ; but the assailants were repelled with loss. Cornwallis 
tiien started in pursuit of Morgan's detachment, but the latter 
passed the fords of the Catawba, the Yadkin and the Dan, 
just in advance of his pursuers. Being joined by Greene's 
main army, a battle was fought, on the 15th day of 3d month 
(March), at Guilford Court-House, in which the British had the 
advantage. Cornwallis marched into Virginia, while Greene, 
retiring southward, attacked Rawdon's forces at Hobkirk's 
Hill, near Camden, but was defeated in the attempt to dis- 
lodge the British commander. Numerous skirmishes, mostly 
of a partisan character, ensued, until finally there occurred a 
severe engagement at Eutaw Springs, when the British having 
lost all their military posts retired to Charleston. 



17S1] CORNIVALLIS SURRENDERS. 317 

Very early in the year, General Arnold had landed a force 
of British troops in the vicinity of Richmond, and destroyed 
the public stores there, besides committing various wanton 
acts of depredation upon private property. Clinton sent 
an additional army under General Phillips, to aid Arnold in 
his destructive work, and to effect a junction with the army 
of Cornwall is. The increased force of the latter began its 
march toward the interior of Virginia, somewhat harassed by 
the troops of Lafayette; but receiving orders from Clinton, 
they retreated toward the coast. At Yorktown, upon the 
north side of the York-and-James rivers peninsula, Cornwal- 
lis strongly intrenched himself, relying for assistance upon 
Clinton or the British admiral, if such aid should be needed. 

Meanwhile, Washington ordered the French army of Count 
Rochambeau to leave Rhode Island and join the army of 
Lafayette, the junction being formed at Williamsburg, close 
to Yorktown. The allies then numbered 16,000 men. The 
large French fleet of the Count de Grasse likewise arrived in 
the Chesapeake, after a slight but successful engagement with 
the British fleet of Admiral Graves. Batteries were con- 
structed by the Americans, and cannonading commenced. 
Cornwallis, with an army not half as large as that of the allies, 
being defeated in several sorties, and failing in an attempt to 
withdraw his forces, finally agreed to terms of capitulation. 
On the 19th day of the loth month (October), 1781, his 
army of over 7000 men, together with all the military stores, 
were surrendered to the Americans ; the shipping and their 
crews being given up to the French five days later. Clinton, 
with heavy reinforcements, arrived off the capes of Virginia, 
but being apprised of the surrender of Cornwallis, he sailed 
back to New York without delay. 

The serious reverse to the British cause experienced at 
Yorktown, caused an abrupt cessation of hostilities. Unwil- 
ling to b^ taxed any longer for the prosecution of so expensive 

27* 



31 8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1783 

a contest, the people of England demanded that peace should 
be made. The king, although very reluctant to renounce all 
hope of re-possessing the American colonies, could not pre- 
vent the organization of a new cabinet favorable to peace. 
As a first conciliatory step. Sir Guy Carleton, governor of 
Canada, a man popular with the Americans, was appointed to 
sui)ersede Clinton at New York. 

Early in 1783 preliminary articles of peace were agreed 

upon, and on the 3d day of the 9th month (September), in 

■the same year, the definitive treaty was signed at Versailles. 

The United States were represented by Dr. Franklin, John 

Adams, John Jay and Henry Laurens. 

While these negotiations were pending, the stability of the 
young republic seemed for a time endangered by the discon- 
tents and machinations prevalent in the army. The officers 
had been promised by Congress half-pay for life, but, aware 
of the low condition of the public treasury, they became 
apprehensive lest the stipulation would not be fulfilled, nor 
even their accounts for arrearages settled. To quiet the rising 
storm, Washington appointed a special meeting with his 
officers at Newburg, where he gave them assurances that he 
would endeavor by all the means in his power to secure from 
Congress the right adjustment of their claims. 

Some of the officers, actuated by motives of ambition, made 
a secret proposition to Washington that he should accept the 
title of "king;" but that doubtful honor he promptly and 
indignantly declined. News of the signing of the treaty of 
peace having arrived, the British army evacuated New York ; 
and immediately thereafter, Washington, proceeding to An- 
napolis where Congress had assembled in session, resigned 
his commission as commander-in-chief, 12th month (Decem- 
ber) 23, 1783. He then retired to his estate of Mount Ver- 
non, and engaged in the quiet pursuits of agricultural life. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE CONSTITUTION FORMED. ADMINISTRATION OF 
WASHINGTON. 

1784— 1796. 



FINANCIAL DEPRESSION. SHAYS' REBELLION 

The desire of our Revolutionary ancestors to be free from 
the control of the parent country was a sufficiently laudable 
wish in itself, yet that object could surely have been peace- 
ably attained at a mere tithe of the expense which the war 
involved, and probably, too, without any loss of life whatever. 
According to an estimate made by Congress after the decla- 
ration of peace, it appeared that the war had cost the country 
about 135 million dollars. Not only were the government 
finances in a deplorable state, but a burden of debt encum- 
bered almost every corporation. With an unreliable paper 
currency, trade and manufactures were necessarily greatly 
depressed, while agriculture had been very much neglected, 
consequent upon the withdrawal of so many yeomen to serve 
in the army. 

England, in addition to the loss of her colonies, incurred, 
as a result of her folly, a debt of over ^100,000,000, and the 
loss of 50,000 men. 

Ikit, far more to be lamented than the pecuniary loss and 
business depression which followed the war, was the increase 
of vice and immorality, the inevitable accompaniments of 
every period of carnal strife. The discipline and manners of 

319 



320 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1784 

the army were by no means calculated to aid the virtue or 
to foster the industrious habits of the provincial soldiers. 
Furthermore, the skeptical opinions held by many of the 
French and German officers had been widely disseminated, 
and, aided by sundry infidel publications, had weakened and 
even blasted the religious belief of many in the community. 
The chief of these pernicious works was the "Age of Reason," 
by Thomas Paine, a writer who had acquired great popularity 
during the Revolution, by his advocacy of the American cause 
in his pamphlet entitled "Common Sense." Subsequently, 
liaving defended, in his " Rights of Man," the principles of 
the French Revolution, he made his appearance in France, 
and was chosen a deputy to the National Convention ; but, by 
the influence of Robespierre, whose enmity he had incurred, 
he was thrown into prison, and, while there, wrote that most 
mischievous publication, the "Age of Reason." 

Paine came back to America, and died at Greeinvicli on Long 
Island, in 1809. In his last houis he found that reason- was, after 
all, but a poor stay — a broken staff — to lean upon. His infidel 
friends, too, had all deserted him. Being in a destitute condition, 
very ill and without a nurse, he was visited by some members of the 
Society of Friends (among whom was Stephen Grellet) who, pitying 
his lamentable state, supplied him with an attendant and ministered 
to his necessities. Once, some of his deistical comrades came to 
the door and cried out in a loud and unfeeling manner — " Tom 
Paine, it is said you are turning Christian, but we hope you will die 
as you have lived :" upon which, turning to his attendant, he said — 
" You see what miserable comforters they are." At another time, 
when the nurse told him that she had once begun to read his book, 
but it so distressed her that she threw it into the fire, he remarked — 
" I wish all had done as you, for if the devil has ever had any agency 
in any work, he has had it in my writing that book." 

Various expedients were resorted to by the several states, to 
obtain relief from tlie financial distress and embarrassment. 
The flirmers, who were mostly in debt to the merchants, 



1786] SHAYS' REBELLION: 321 

favored the issuing of paper money by the states, in a similar 
manner as had already been done by the general government. 
This course was adopted in Rhode Island, but resulted in a 
heavy depreciation in the bills, and the loss of public credit. 
With onerous taxes to pay, the discontent among the people 
became \yide-spread and alarming, finally, in various quarters 
breaking out into open insurrection. Of these disturbances 
the most notable were those in Massachusetts (1786), which 
culminated in " Shays' Rebellion." A few particulars of the 
effects of the war in the one state, will suffice the purpose of 
our history, in pointing out the error of a resort to arms for the 
settlement of differences, which can be far better adjusted by 
remonstrance and arbitration. 

The debt of Massachusetts at the end of the war, together 
with the state's proportion of the national debt, and the money 
due to its soldiers, exceeded thirty times the amount of its 
debt before the war ! In addition to this, every town was em- 
barrassed by advances which had been made in complying 
with requisitions for soldiers and supplies. On the other hand, 
in the maritime towns, many men had acquired fortunes, di- 
rectly or indirectly, by privateering. Among these an emu- 
lation began to be manifest of making a free display of their 
riches, — an example which their less opulent neighbors were 
not slow to imitate. 

To gratify this new taste for luxuries, foreign articles were 
imported in quantities which the exhausted state of the country 
would not warrant, especially as commerce and the fisheries 
had been so greatly neglected. It will be sufficient to instance 
the fact that the merchant fleet of Nantucket had been reduced 
by the war, from 150 sail to 19. One of the severest effects of 
the Revolution is stated to have been, the loss of many markets 
to which Americans had formerly resorted with their jjroduce. 
And inasmuch as such produce could not be procured to pay 
for foreign importations, the little specie that remained was 
o* 



32 2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1786 

necessarily in demand for that purpose ; and, not being always 
adequate to meet the requisition, numbers of the importers 
became bankrupt. 

But the chief cause of the commotion which broke out in 
Massachusetts, was the accumulation of private debts. An 
act had been passed which provided that cattle, and other 
things especially enumerated, might, in default of money, be 
used to satisfy executions for debt; but this "Tender Act" 
became so obnoxious, that it remained but a short time in 
force. Cases of litigation, however, multiplied; the public 
outcry being first directed against tlie lawyers as being the 
legal instruments of their tribulations, and then against the 
holding of the courts, because from them issued the executions 
for debts. 

At Northampton, the malcontents to the number of nearly 
1500, took forcible possession of the court-house; and in several 
other of the towns, in defiance of the governor's proclama- 
tion, similar insurrectionary measures were adopted. Many 
of the insurgents were soldiers of the late war, who, as they 
had shouldered their muskets to settle their grievances against 
England, considered themselves justified in trying the same 
violent method in the present case. Incited by their success 
ill embarrassing the proceedings of the common pleas courts, 
the insurgents attempted to stop the assembling of the supreme 
court also, hoping by that means to prevent a legal prosecu- 
tion of their riotous acts. 

At Springfield, several hundred armed men, led by Daniel 
Shays, a captain of the late Continental army, having obtained 
possession of the court-house, endeavored to secure the federal 
arsenal likewise ; but they were met by some of the state mili- 
tia, and several of their number killed. Meanwhile, the main 
body of the state troops under General Lincoln advancing into 
western Massachusetts, several skirmishes ensued, resulting in 
the discomfiture of the insurgents, who were obliged to take 



1786] THE CONSTITUTION. 323 

refuge in the surrounding states. Many of the fugitives were 
harbored in Vermont, which, nine years previously (in 1777) had 
dechared itself a separate state, independent of both New York 
and New Hampshire. Although a number of the leaders of 
the insurrection were apprehended and sentenced to death, 
they were subsequently pardoned, while the grievances com- 
plained of were mostly remedied by acts of the general court 
and the legislature : the proper channels for the rectification 
of abuses, they being open to all. 



THE CONSTITUTION. WASHINGTON ELECTED FIRST PRESI- 
DENT. 

The authority vested in the Congress of the American states, 
while it had sufificetl to answer the purpose of a military con- 
deferacy, like that of the preceding century in New England, was 
found to be totally inadequate as a permanent form of govern- 
ment. The compact was one of mere temporary convenience ; 
and, since each state had reserved so much liberty of govern- 
ment to itself, it became very soon evident there could be no 
wise concert of action until the articles of confederation were 
amended to meet the exigencies of the occasion. For instance, 
some of the treaties made with foreign nations had been com- 
plied with by part of the states, but violated by others; and 
in the same manner, when the Congress had declared a system 
of impost.s, such of the states only adopted it whose conven- 
ience it happened to suit. 

In accordance with a proposition made by James Madison 
in the Legislature of Virginia, delegates from five of the 
middle states met at Annapolis in 1786, for the purpose of 
taking measures to reform the system of government. But, 
as a minority only of the states were there represented, and 
the power vested in the delegates was too limited for the 
occasion, it was judged best to recommend a general conven- 



324 fflSTOKY OF THE UXITED STATES. [17S6 

tion of delegates to meet the following year at Philadelphia. 
The assembly met, pursuant to the call, and, having elected 
George Washington, one of the members from Virginia, their 
president, they proceeded with the momentous task of framing 
a new constitution. 

There was necessarily much conflict of opinion as to what 
degree of power it was advisable should be conferred by the 
sei>arate states upon the one central government ; those in favor 
of a strong compact of the states being called Federalists, 
while their opponents, who feared the curtailment of the 
states' rights, were known as Anti-Federalists. 

Another chief point of disagreement was in regard to the 
representation to be alloweii in Congress to the slave-holding 
states ; it being contended by the delegates who did not tavor 
slavery, that the number of free white citizens in each state 
should constitute the ba^is of apportionment. They thought 
that, since the negroes were held to be chattels, debarred 
from all the privileges of citizenship, the fact of their posses- 
sion should not enhance the representative power of the 
masters any more than should the possession of any other 
species of property. But it was finally allowed, that in deter- 
mining the quota of representation for those states, five slaves 
should be counted as equivalent to three white inhabitants. 
The new constitution was ratified by eleven of the states in 
17SS. Of the two dissenting states, North Carolina adopted 
it in 17S9, and Rho.ie Island in 1790. 

Had the constitution provided that slaves should tioi be counted 
in computing the quota of representatives, it is highly probable that 
our country would have escaped the sad experience of the War of 
Emancipation. The slave power would then not have been over- 
represented, and hence would have l>een more likely to accept of 
some satisfactory plan of adjustment ere sectional bitterness closed 
the way. 

The preamble of the constitution declares that it is ordained 



I7S6] THE COXSTITUTIOX. 325 

by and in the name of tlie people of the United States, anil 
that its purposes are " to form a more perfect union, establish 
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and 
their posterity." 

By its provisions, the h-gislative power is vested in two as- 
semblies — a Senate and a House of Representatives. The 
Senate is composed of two members from each state, who are 
chosen by the legislatures of the respective states, their term 
of service being for six years. The members of the lower 
house are chosen directly by the electors of the states, and 
are apportioned to each state according to the number of its 
inhabitants. The term of the representatives is for two 
years. They choose their presiding officer, who is called the 
"speaker." Both houses together are called the Congress, 
and they must convene as often as once every year. 

The executive power is vested in a president and vice-presi- 
dent chosen by the people for a term of four years. The 
vice-president is the presiding officer or speaker of the Senate. 
The president is privileged to nominate ambassadors and con- 
suls, to appoint judges of the Supreme Court and many other 
officials, to enter into treaties with foreign powers, etc., sub- 
ject, however to confirmation by the Senate. He is also 
commander-in-chief of the army and navy when they are in 
actual service. 

'Y\\t judiciixl power of the republic, is vested in a Supreme 
Court and such other inferior courts as Congress may from 
time to time establish. Any laws, state or federal, which shall 
be adjudged as at variance with the federal constitution, the 
Supreme Court may declare to be illegal and not binding; 
and all disputes between two states, or the citizens of one 
state and the government of another, are referrible to the 
same tribunal. The term of office of the judges, it is very 
properly ordained, shall be during good behavior. They may 



326 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1789 

be impeaclied for misilemcaiior by the House of Representa- 
tives, with which body impeachments against the president or 
vice-president must also orii^inate. The Senate is the court 
for trying such cases. ShouUl a president, vice-president, or 
IJnited States judge be found guilty, no i)enalty is permitted 
greater than loss of office and tlistpialification to hold it in 
future. 

Washington, who, as already stated, had been a delegate to 
the convention which framed the constitution, was the first 
choice of the people for their president. In the retirement 
of Mount Vernon, he had found congenial occupation in the 
improvement of his estate and in the gratification of a taste 
for the beauties of landscape gardening. When on a visit to 
certain lands owned by hini upon the Ohio, he became im- 
pressed with the feasibility and importance of uniting the 
head-waters of that great stream with those of tlie Potomac 
and the James, and thereby opening a perpetual channel of 
intercommunication between the Atlantic and the fertile prai- 
ries of the West. A memorial which he addressed to the 
Virginia legislature upon this important subject, resulted in 
the formation of the Potomac Company, and the Kanawha 
and James River Company. 

In the spring of 1789, Washington, then in the 57th year 
of his age, was inaugurated president of the United States. 
The ceremony was performed amidst much i)oi)ular enthusiasm, 
in the city of New York, where the national Congress was in 
session. John Adams, of Massachusetts, had been elected 
to the office of vice-president. The other chief officers of 
the government at its first organization, were Thomas Jeffer- 
son, secretary of state; Alexander llamillon, secretary of the 
treasury ; Henry Knox, secretary of war ; Mdmund Randoljjh, 
attorney-general ; Samuel Osgood, jjostmaster-general ; and 
Jolm Jav, cliicf justice of the United States. These consti- 
tuted the "cabinet ;" I)eing appointed to, or removable from. 



179°] THE CONSTI'J'U'riON. 327 

office, directly by tlic president. The offices of secretary of 
the navy and secretary of the interior were added afterward. 

With the wise and impressive utterances of Wasliinj^ton's 
Inaugural Address before them, Conj^ress at once devised 
measures for the raising; of a revenue to defray the expenses 
of carrying on the government, and for the j)ayment of the 
debt contracted during the war. This was effected by tlu; 
laying of duties on merchandise imported, — in other words, 
by a tariff; and likewise by a similar duty charged upon the 
tonnage of vessels. At the same time, in order to give en- 
couragement to native shipping, a discrimination was made 
both in favor of the tonnage-tax on American vessels, and in 
the duty upon foreign articles imported in such. 

Other inii)ortant measures of this Congress were the organi- 
zation of the national courts into a Supreme Court, Circaiit 
and District ("ourts ; the amendment of the constitution by 
the adoption of twelve new articles; and the arranging of 
the salaries. Tlie president's salary was fixed at jft25,ooo; 
that of the vice-president at ^5000 ; those of the heads of 
departments (the cabinet officers) at $3500 each. Members of 
the Senate were to receive seven dollars per day, and alh^w- 
ance for travelling expenses; representatives, tiie same allow- 
ance, and six dollars per day. 

The session of the following year (1790) was very much 
engrossed by the consideration of the finances. Hamilton, 
the secretary of the treasury, i>resented to Congress a plan for 
funding the national and state debts into cjne, and also a 
recommendation for the imi)osition of taxes on articles of 
luxury and on spirituous lifjuors. The funding measure gave 
rise to a great deal of animated and even bitter debate be- 
tween the Federalists who favored its passage, and their op- 
ponents. The latter feared that if the general government 
assumed the state debts, and thus made the capitalists deijcnd- 
ent upon a central power, it would weaken the influence of 



328 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1790 

the state governments; hence they preferred tliat the states 
should take the burden of repayment upon themselves. The 
Southern members, as they, more especially, favored "states' 
rights," were therefore opposed to the funding bill, and herein 
they had the outspoken support of Jefferson. Its passage, 
nevertheless, was effected by a compromise upon a very dif- 
ferent matter, to wit : that the seat of government should be 
removed, within ten years, from Philadelphia to some place 
to be selected on the Potomac. The amount of the debt 
was about 75 million dollars, upon part of which the rate of 
interest was placed at three per cent., and upon the rest at six 
per cent. A national bank, with a capital of 10 million dol- 
lars, was also ordered, and was established at Philadelphia. 

The inhabitants of Vermont having signified their wish 
to become citizens of the Republic, the "Green-Mountain 
State" was therefore admitted in 1791, the fourteenth mem- 
ber of the American Union. Kentucky was admitted in 
1792, and Tennessee in 1796. Where Louisville was after- 
ward built, at the falls of the Ohio, a stockade fort had been 
erected by a party of Americans (1778), during the Revolu- 
tionary war. 

Washington was re-elected president, and John Adams, 
vice-president, at the election in the autumn of 1792. This 
was the period of the French Revolution or " Reign of Ter- 
ror," which, beginning in 1789, culminated in 1793 in the 
execution of Louis XVL, the downfall of the royal house of 
Bourbon, and the proclamation of the French Republic. 

THE MIAMI WAR. THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

Twenty-six years had elapsed since the failure of Pontiac's 
conspiracy, when, in 1790, there occurred another general 
outbreak of the western Indians, the foremost inciter of which 
was a chief of the Miami tribe, named Little Turtle. It 



1795] THE MIAMI WAR. 329 

is not improbable that some unprincipled plotters among the 
Canadians encouraged the hostility of the Indians, for De- 
troit and a few other frontier posts within the boundary of the 
United States were still held by the English, on the i)lea that 
certain treaty stipulations remained as yet unfulfilled. Simon 
Girty, a half-breed trader, notorious as a busy-body and fo- 
menter of discord, was an active agent in the movements 
which had led to the massacre of the Moravian Indians at 
Gnadenhiitten. 

Carried away with the illusive hope of exterminating the 
whites, the banded warriors committed terrible atrocities 
along the western border. In return, a force under General 
Harmer destroyed a number of their villages in the Ohio 
territory ; but Harmer being defeated in an engagement with 
the Indians, the command of the army was transferred to 
General St. Clair, governor of the North-Western territory. 
The latter, however, while in the vicinity of the Miami vil- 
lages, was surprised by Little Turtle's band, and a wholesale 
massacre of the whites took place. Not more than one-fourth 
of them escaped. So disastrous was this defeat, and so un- 
popular the war, that a truce with the Indians was agreed to. 

Yet, the tribes having refused the following year to consent 
to a treaty, General Wayne with an army of 3000 men now 
undertook to chastise them. Contrary to the advice of Little 
Turtle, who had heard of Wayne's prowess in battle, the In- 
. dians again came into conflict with the whites, and were this 
time badly defeated. All the chiefs of the Wyandottes, nine 
in number, were slain. Being satisfied of the futility of con- 
tending any longer, the chiefs of twelve tribes met the ap- 
pointed commissioners in the 8th month (August), 1795, at 
Fort Greenville, and agreed, as a condition of peace, to re- 
linquish an extensive territory south of Lake Erie, as well 
as certain other tracts in which were the military jjosts of 
the West. The United States conditioned to pay them a 

28- 



330 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1791 

perpetual annuity of a few thousand dollars in money and 
goods. 

Shortly before the above treaty was concluded, a formidable 
rebellion, known as the " Whiskey Insurrection," broke out 
in western Pennsylvania. The pioneers of that region, many 
of whom were from Ireland and North Britain, having an in- 
herited love of ardent spirits, had themselves become large 
producers of Monongahela whiskey. The province of Penn- 
sylvania had, as early as 1756, laid an excise duty on this 
article, to obtain the means of sustaining its bills of credit. 
These, it will be remembered, were made necessary, in order 
to defray the cost of fighting the French and Indians. For a 
few years prior to the Revolution, however, the tax had not 
been rigorously collected ; but, when the debts caused by that 
war began to press heavily, then the law was again enforced. 

In the estimation of the whiskey distillers, this was an 
infringement on their liberties equal to the imposition of the 
tax on tea by Great Britain ; and in a similar manner they 
prepared to contest its collection. The law-officers were mal- 
treated or chased away, liberty-poles were erected, and the 
people assembled in arms. The state excise tax was soon after- 
ward repealed, and whiskey remained thus exempt until 1791 ; 
but. Congress having then passed a like law for the benefit of 
the national treasury, the former scenes of violence were re- 
enacted. The principal mode of opposition was that of tar- 
ring and feathering the obnoxious officers, and of burning the 
barns and mills of those distillers who complied with the 
law. 

After these violent proceedings had continued for about 
three years, and a body of malcontents from Braddock's-field 
had menaced Pittsburg, the president issued a requisition upon 
the governors of Pennsylvania and of several of the adjoining 
states, for an army of 15,000 men to quell the disturbances. 
Governor Lee, of Virginia, was placed in command of the 



1794] WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 331 

troops, but, fortunately, a conflict was prevented through the 
earnest persuasions of a number of the residents of the dis- 
affected district. One of the most influential of these was 
Albert Gallatin, a native of Geneva, in Switzerland. A 
man of liberal education, and imbued with republican senti- 
ments, he came to this country in 1780, and eventually settled 
on the banks of the Monongahela, where he established the 
glass-works and village of New Geneva. Although opposed 
to the excise tax, he was a man of moderation, and hence his 
judicious appeals in favor of law and order were well re- 
ceived. After a few of the leaders had been arrested, the 
army was withdrawn, and quiet was soon fully restored. 

France being at war with England and Holland, the Amer- 
icans were much inclined to extend aid to the young republic; 
but Washington was strongly opposed to any interference on 
the part of his countrymen with the affairs of the nations 
beyond the Atlantic. His cabinet, being unanimously of the 
same mind, a proclamation of 7icittrality was issued. Never- 
theless, the country for awhile seemed in danger of drifting 
into the strife, through the reckless behavior of the new 
French minister, the "Citizen" Genet, who, mistaking the 
warmth of his reception by the American people for a will- 
ingness to afford warlike aid, presumed to fit out privateers at 
the port of Charleston, to cruise against his country's enemies. 
This, and other arbitrary measures, rendered him so unpop- 
ular that he was shortly recalled by his government. James 
Monroe was our own representative at the French capital. 

Important treaties were also entered into with England and 
Spain. By the treaty of 1794 with England, Detroit and the 
other western posts were given up ; but the United States 
conceded to England the right claimed by that country of 
searching merchant-vessels, — a permission which, though it 
caused a great clamor as being humiliating, was certainly a 
point which was not worth fighting for. Thieves are not 



332 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1796 

sought for in the houses of honest men, and no government 
professing neutrality is just and ingenuous in its policy if it 
consents to harbor armed plotters against the peace of a sister 
nation. In short, the treaty was happily conceived, and its 
benefits became apparent in the removal of the various causes 
of uneasiness, of complaint and of recrimination between the 
two countries. 

By the treaty with Spain, the boundary between its prov- 
ince of Louisiana and the United States was amicably adjusted. 
The free navigation of the Mississippi was secured to the 
American government, together with the privilege, hitherto 
withheld, of landing and depositing cargoes at New Orleans. 
The wisdom manifested by Washington in thus administer- 
ing the political affairs of the nation, especially in deprecating 
warfare with foreign powers, had resulted in a very marked 
commercial prosperity, the amount of our exports having in- 
creased, during his eight years' term, from 19 to 56 million 
dollars. In his Farewell Address to the American people, 
published in 1796, he calls upon them to cherish an unwaver- 
ing attachment for the union of the states, and ever to watch 
for its preservation inviolate. As peculiarly hostile to re- 
publican liberty, he warns them against the maintenance of a 
large military establishment. Believing the constitution to 
have been wisely framed, he also cautions against any altera- 
tion of its provisions without positive necessity being ap- 
parent ; while parly spirit he especially rej^robates as being 
inimical to the best interests of the people at large. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 

1797 — 1809. 



JOHN ADAMS, SECOND PRESIDENT. DISPUTES WITH 
FRANCE. 

Notwithstanding the cautionary admonitions of Washing- 
ton, the conflict of parties continued greatly to agitate the 
nation, the partisans of the two chief political divisions being 
sharply divided not only upon various subjects of domestic 
policy, but also with regard to the foreign relations of the na- 
tion. The Federalists were charged by their opposerswith an 
undue partiality for England, whilst the Republicans, on the 
other hand, were accused of manifesting too strong a friendship 
for France. As Washington declined to be a candidate for a 
third term, the choice of the people for his successor in the 
presidency, fell upon John Adams of Massachusetts, a Feder- 
alist. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, a Republican, was 
chosen vice-president. 

John Adams was of a Puritan family which had emigrated 
from England to Massachusetts about twenty years after the 
landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. He was a strong advo- 
cate of separation from the mother country, and, at the mem- 
orable Congress which assembled at Philadelphia in 1776, 
was one of the committee appointed to draft the Declaration 
of Independence, — a duty, however, which entirely devolved 
on Jefferson. Adams was the first ambassador of the United 
States to England. 

333 



334 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.. [1797 

Jefferson was the son of a planter of Albemarle county, 
Virginia. After the important part he had taken in the Con- 
gress of 1776, he became governor of Virginia, and was sub- 
sequently sent as minister to France. Adams, like Washington, 
was in favor of a firm centralized government ; while Jefferson, 
perhaps a stronger advocate of a republican government than 
either of the former, favored more liberty for the individual 
states. The reason why a president and vice-president of such 
opposite political views were chosen, was because the then 
method of balloting for those officers was for each elector to 
vote for two persons ; he who received the highest number of 
votes being elected president, and the second on the list, vice- 
president. Many of the Federalists voted for Jefferson, in- 
stead of their own candidate for vice-president. 

Immediately after their inauguration (3d month 4th, 1797) 
the attention of the new incumbents was turned to the hostile 
attitude of the French Directory, which, having failed to per- 
suade the American government to forsake its policy of neu- 
trality, was disposed to make its displeasure apparent. Re- 
fusing to receive Pinckney as minister, in place of Monroe, 
until their demands should be complied with by the United 
States, the president thereupon appointed three envoys-extra- 
ordinary to proceed to the French capital. Though they were 
not officially received, the envoys were given to understand 
that the payment of a considerable sum of money to Talley- 
rand, the minister of foreign relations, would open the way to 
negotiations with the Directory. As this method of inter- 
course was as unsatisfactory as it was dishonest, the envoys, 
after several months spent in fruitless parleys, were recalled by 
the president. 

A war now seemed imminent. Washington was called once 
more from his home on the Potomac and placed in command 
of a provisional army, while the navy was increased, and began 
measures of retaliation. A large French frigate, L'Insurgent, 



iSoo] JOHN ADAMS, SECOND PRESIDENT. 335 

was captured by the Constellation, commanded by Commo- 
dore Truxton. But at this crisis, the power of the Directory 
was overthrown by Bonaparte, who, being willing to enter 
into a negotiation with the United States, envoys were again 
appointed to proceed to Paris. In the 9th month (September), 
iSoo, a treaty was signed, by which all matters in dispute were 
amicably adjusted. Before the treaty was concluded, Wash- 
ington died at Mount Vernon the i4thday of the 12th month, 
1799, being in the 68th year of his age. 

The warlike measures adopted by Adams in the dispute with 
France, had rendered him unpopular with many citizens, and 
this feeling was increased by his approval of the " Sedition" 
and " Alien" laws, which were considered as opposed to the 
constitutional guarantee of personal liberty. By the Sedition 
Law, any j^ersons combining or conspiring together to oppose 
the measures of the government, by means of any false or 
scandalous writing, were punishable by a heavy fine and long 
imprisonment. The Alien Act conferred authority upon the 
president to banish any unnaturalized foreigner whom he 
should consider dangerous to the peace and liberty of the 
country. These restrictive measures were adopted to circum- 
vent the machinations of the French revolutionists, whose acts 
were reprobated as partaking far more of unlimited license 
than of true liberty. Similar Alien acts were passed by 
the English parliament in 1792 and 1793, in consequence of 
the great influx of strangers, — many of them being political 
adventurers suspected of sinister motives. 

The year 1800 is also memorable as being that in which the 
seat of the Federal government was removed from Philadel- 
jjhia to the city of Washington, in accordance with the law 
passed by Congress in 1790. A small territory, the District 
of Columbia, square in shape, and measuring ten miles on each 
side, situated partly in the state of Virginia and partly in 
Maryland, had been ceded by those states as the location for 



336 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1801 

a permanent capital. The city was laid out under the direc- 
tion of General Washington, with streets from 90 to 120 feet 
wide, and twenty "avenues" 130 to 160 feet in width. A 
capitol and other public buildings having been erected, Con- 
gress assembled there for the first time in the nth month 
(November), 1800. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, PRESIDENT. ACQUISITION OF LOUISI- 
ANA. A DUEL. WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 

At the next presidential election, the result of a persistent 
adherence to party candidates became apparent when the 
electors chosen by the states (who together constitute the 
temporary body styled the "electoral college"), having cast 
their ballots, it was found that Thomas Jefferson and Aaron 
Burr each had the same number of votes. Consequently, in 
accordance with a constitutional provision, it became necessary 
to refer the choice to the House of Representatives. Curiously 
it happened, that the like result transpired there, Jefferson 
and Burr receiving again an equal number of votes; and it 
was not until the 36th ballot had been taken, that the change 
of one vote decided the contest for the presidency in favor of 
Jefferson. 

Jefferson's inaugural speech (1801) instead of being de- 
livered before the houses of Congress in person, as had been 
done by Washington and Adams, was conveyed to those bodies 
in the shape of a written message, — a practice which was fol- 
lowed by his successors. To fill the important post of secre- 
tary of state, James Madison was appointed. The various 
political offices of the country were, for the most part, trans- 
ferred to the adherents of the successful party. Thus was 
begun that bad practice of substituting party favor for integrity 
and ability, which has to this day proved so disastrous to the 
best interests of the^country. 



i8oo] ACQUISITION OF LOUISIANA. 337 

The Alien and Sedition Laws were repealed by the new 
administration, and the excise on whiskey abolished. By the 
second census, the population of the Unjted States was shown 
to have increased from about four million in 1790, to five 
million three hundred thousand; and the exports, from 19 
to 94 million dollars. Ohio was admitted in 1802, the seven- 
teenth state of the Union, slavery being excluded. The 
territory of this state, by virtue of the original grants from the 
crown, had been claimed by both Connecticut and Virginia, 
but those claims were now relinquished. During St. Clair's 
governorship of the North-West Territory, Fort Wa.shington 
was built on the Ohio (1788), on the site of the future city of 
Cincinnati. 

The most important event of the first term of President 
Jefferson's administration, was the acquisition of the territory 
of Louisiana, then included within boundaries many times 
larger than is the present state of that name. This extensive 
territory, which had been transferred by France to Spain in 
1762, was ceded back to France in the year 1800. As a result 
of the latter transfer, the permission which had been granted 
by the Spanish authorities to United States citizens, of landing 
merchandise at the port of New Orleans, was rescinded. Ap- 
prehensive that the commerce of the western rivers would be 
ruined by this prohibition. Congress lost no time in repre- 
senting to the French court the serious loss which must ensue. 
These representations having been made in a reasonable and 
amicable spirit, the privilege was once more restored. 

So obvious, however, was the desirability of obtaining con- 
trol of the Louisiana territory, and thus permanently assuring 
the free navigation of the Mississippi river, that Congress, in- 
structed by the recent troublesome occurrence, opened nego- 
tiations with the French government for its purchase. The 
proposal was acceded to. For the sum of fifteen million dol- 
lars, all the region included between the Mississip])i river and 
p 29 



338' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1804 

the Rocky Mountains was granted absolutely to the United 
States. By this treaty, which was concluded at Paris in 1803, 
the geographical area of the Republic was more than doubled. 
The state of Louisiana was admitted into the Union in 181 2. 
Although its staple, the sugar-cane, was introduced in 1751, 
slow progress was made in cultivating it, until 1794, when the 
revolution in San Domingo drove some Frenchmen to Louisi- 
ana, and by them was introduced an improved smaller variety, 
the yellow creole cane. 

In the summer of 1804 occurred the death of Alexander 
Hamilton in a duel with Aaron !Burr, the vice-president. 
Hamilton had been the constant companion and counsellor 
of Washington during the latter years of the Revolutionary war. 
About the time of the framing of the constitution, he had pub- 
lished, under the title of " The Federalist," a series of notable 
essays intended to vindicate the constitution from the various 
objections which had been urged against it. As secretary of 
the treasury during Washington's presidency-^ Hamilton had 
acquired a reputation for ability which ranked him with the 
greatest financiers. Upon the death of Washington, he be- 
came commander-in-chief of the army; but, having incurred 
the bitter resentment of the vice-president on account of some 
published expressions which he refused either to retract or 
deny, Burr sent him a challenge to mortal combat. 

Aaron Burr, although a grandson of the good Jonathan 
Edwards, and son, of a clergyman (President Burr, of Prince- 
ton College), was himself a skeptic in religion. From his 
youth he had evinced a love of intrigue and of the military 
art, had gleaned from books all that could be learned of the 
latter " profession," and prized the soldier's glory above any 
other. After taking an active part in the war of the Revolu- 
tion, he became a practicing lawyer of New York city, in 
reputation second to Hamilton, but opposed to him in politics 
and always his rival. 



i8o4] HAMILTON KILLED BY BURR. 339 

Hamilton, it is true, was well aware that he had given Burr 
just cause of offence. He was ready to make a partial ac- 
knowledgment of his error, but an unworthy fear, the dread 
of public opinion, forbade his acting that nobler part which 
the line of duty called for. Thus, rather than submit to what 
he esteemed to be a humiliation, Hamilton accepted the chal- 
lenge. He was not without warning of the miserable fate 
which was likely to await him, for his own eldest son had been 
shot down three years before in a duel, which had arisen from 
a political dispute in a theatre. 

Early in the morning, without the knowledge of his wife and 
children, Hamilton crossed the Hudson and landed beneath 
the heights of Weehawken, where Burr and his companions 
awaited him. Ten paces were stepped off, and pistols handed 
to the combatants. At the first fire, Hamilton received his 
death-wound. Burr and his accomplices fled, for the commu- 
nity branded the deed as that of murder. So great was the 
sensation caused throughout the country by this lamentable 
event, and so general became the inquiry as to the propriety 
of countenancing so foolish a thing as duelling, that the prac- 
tice thenceforth fell very much into disrepute. 

Formerly the wager of battle, or judicial combat, was a very 
common method for asserting one's rights or redressing grievances, 
it being superstitiously believed that the Almighty would favor the 
arrn of justice in all such contests. But the custom became eventu- 
ally merely a bloody method of obtaining "satisfaction" for insults 
or injuries, real or imaginary. The French people, in times past, 
have been especially partial to duelling ; and to such a great length 
was the practice carried in the reign of Henry IV. that at least 4000 
" honorable combatants" (so-called) perished thereby. 

While it is true that the nation at large was shamed at this 
public exhibition of the enmity of two prominent citizens, as 
well as appalled at the sorrowful result of their method of 
proving the right, no such sentiment was apparent respecting a 



340 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1804 

dispute which prevailed at the same time respecting the Med- 
iterranean state of Tripoli. As a Roman province, Tripoli 
obtained its designation from the fact that its three principal 
cities (tri poli) were leagued together. Of one of these cities 
the emperor Septimus Severus was a native. In common with 
the rest of north Africa, Tripoli succumbed to the Moham- 
medan sway, and in the i6th century became a part of the 
Turkish empire. The inhabitants of the coast, acquiring a 
taste for piratical pursuits, made themselves obnoxious to 
maritime nations having commerce in those parts. American 
merchant-vessels had suffered from these depredations, and 
their crews been held in bondage. 

The Tripolitan government, in reply to the remonstrance 
which was made, dem.anded the payment of tribute. This, 
the United States refused to accede to, and, not thinking it 
worth while to parley long with a semi-barbarous, non-christian 
nation, despatched three armed vessels under Commodore 
Dale, to the Mediterranean. These blockaded the port of 
Tripoli, and prevented the cruisers from leaving. A larger 
fleet of seven sail, under Commodore Preble, also proceeded 
to the same locality ; but one of the frigates, the Philadelphia, 
ran aground in the harbor, and, being captured by the Tripoli- 
tans, the officers and crew were either imprisoned or treated 
as slaves. The vessel was soon afterward set on fire and de- 
stroyed by a small force under Stephen Decatur. This oc- 
curred early in the year 1804. 

A year later, William Eaton, who had held the post of 
American consul at Tunis, obtained permission of his govern- 
ment to participate in the war. He took command of several 
hundred troops raised in Egypt by Hamet, an older and ex- 
pelled brother of the Pasha of Tripoli, and marched with 
them across the desert, many toilsome leagues to the seaport 
of Derne. This Tripolitan town he captured, and, receiving 
the co-operation of the fleet, the war was brought to a close 



I Soy] MACHINATIONS OF BURR. 341 

within two months. An exchange of prisoners was agreed 
upon ; likewise that the wife and children of Hamet should 
be given up to him. But the Americans withdrew any further 
support of Hamet's rightful claim to the governorship of the 
province. 



MACHINATIONS OF BURR. BERLIN AND MILAN DECREES. 
THE EMBARGO ACT. 

At the autumn election of 1805, Jefferson was a second 
time, and by a large majority, elected president. George 
Clinton, of New York, was chosen vice-president. Aaron 
Burr, disappointed in his aspirations for office, and shunned 
as a murderer by many of his countrymen, now began to de- 
velop his innate love of intrigue in a manner very disturbing 
to the tranquillity of the country. He conceived the nefarious 
design of attempting the conquest of Mexico, purposing the 
establishment of a royal government, with a court where his 
daughter Theodosia might preside, and her little son figure as 
the heir-apparent to the throne. As preliminary to the main 
object of the enterprise, a large section of land on the Washita 
river, comprising several hundred thousand acres, was pur- 
chased as a rendezvous for Burr's followers in case the scheme 
was delayed, and, by the possession of which, they might at 
least be temporarily rewarded. 

Burr's chief coadjutor was Herman Blennerhassett, the pro- 
prietor of a long and narrow island in the Ohio, some distance 
below Marietta. Upon the improvement and adornment of 
this romantic island-domain, Blennerhassett had expended a 
considerable fortune; and now, being nearly bankrupt, his 
imagination was dazzled at the adventurous project of Burr, 
and he did all in his power to promote it. Barges were built 
at Marietta (1807), and bands of the associate marauders were 
beginning to assemble, when the undertaking was exposed, 

29* 



342 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1806 

and Burr, being apprehended, was t^ken to Richmond for 
trial before Chief-Justice Marshall. He was arraigned on the 
double charge of a misdemeanor in undertaking to make war 
upon the dominions of the king of Spain, and of treason in 
organizing an armed force for the purpose of seizing New 
Orleans and of separating the Western from the Atlantic 
states. Notwithstanding there was no doubt whatever in 
people's minds as to his culpability, he was released upon the 
ground that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a con- 
viction. 

Meanwhile, the war which was raging in Europe, had resulted 
in great benefit to the commerce of the United States, whose 
interest it was to extend the privileges of neutrality, and thus 
to reap oil all sides a rich harvest out of the gains of the 
carrying trade. On the other hand, it was the object of 
part of the contestants to contract the rights claimed by 
neutrals, that thereby their opponents might be debarred from 
the "aid and comfort" which, to a certain extent, these 
neutrals were enabled to afford. For, although articles " con- 
traband of war," such as warlike stores and weapons, are for- 
bidden by the laws of nations to be carried in neutral vessels, 
yet frequently, equal or greater aid may be afforded, by 
furnishing other products specially needed by either of the 
contestants. 

While the United States, having thus become the great 
neutral trader among the European nations, was exulting over 
the flourishing state of its commerce, the British government, 
in the spring of 1806, issued a declaration that all the ports 
and rivers from the port of Brest in France to the river Elbe 
in Germany, were in a state of blockade by the fleet of that 
nation; and that any vessels which might be found trading 
within those limits would be liable to seizure and condemna- 
tion. In a few months, Napoleon retaliated by issuing from 
Berlin his "Berlin Decree," declaring the British Islands 



i8o7| EMBARGO ACT. 343 

themselves in a state of blockade, and thus forbidding the 
Americans, or any other neutrals, to trade therewith, under the 
same penalty as the foregoing. 

Next, in 1807, appeared the "British Orders in Council," 
which were orders not promulgated, as was customary, by 
authority of parliament, but by the king's privy council on 
its own responsibility. Issued in retaliation for the Berlin 
Decree, they prohibited all neutral vessels from having any 
intercourse with France or any of her allies, unless they first 
touched at some British port and paid customs-dues there. 
But the French were not to be outdone in the repayment of 
injuries; and accordingly, near the end of 1807, Napoleon 
published his " Milan Decree." It declared not only the 
British Islands, but also all of the British dominions, to be in 
a state of blockade; and, moreover, forbade all countries 
trading with each other in any articles of English manufacture. 
Furthermore, any vessel of a neutral nation which submitted 
to being searched by the English, would be liable to seizure 
and condemnation, the same as though it was actually an 
English vessel. 

To prevent the wholesale destruction of American shipping 
which must follow the operation of the foregoing acts, Con- 
gress, upon the recommendation of President Jefferson, laid 
an embargo on all the merchant vessels of the country. This 
was also intended as a retaliatory measure against the bellig- 
erents, and especially against British manufacturers, whose 
wares at that time of war were largely carried to the ports of 
other neutral nations in American vessels. 

But the Embargo Act met with much opposition, particu- 
larly in the Atlantic seaports, whose ship[>ers preferred risking 
the loss of their vessels to being debarred from trade alto- 
gether. Necessarily, great loss and distress were entailed 
upon the farmers and planters, the home-market being soon 
supi)lied at low rates, while the excess could not be disposed 



344 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1807 

of; and since the demand had thus so greatly fallen off, it 
resulted that a great many people were deprived of employ- 
ment. Upon the cotton planters and rice producers, the 
embargo fell heavily. 

Finally, the injury being so apparent, Congress, in 1809, 
substituted a law prohibiting intercourse with Great Britain 
and France, and confiscating any vessels of those countries 
(their cargoes included) which should enter United States 
ports ; with a proviso, that if either of those nations would 
revoke their orders or decrees, intercourse with such nation 
would at once be resumed. In the course of the following 
year. Napoleon issued still a third edict, called the "Decree 
of Rambouillet," confiscating American vessels found in 
French ports ; to which the Americans could make no very 
great objection, as it was of a like nature with their own con- 
fiscations under the non-intercourse act. Immediately after- 
ward. Napoleon repealed the Milan and Berlin decrees, and 
accordingly trade with France was resumed. 

Convmerce is, or ought to be, a great conservator of international 
peace. "Commerce has no country but the world, no patriotism 
but an earnest interest in the well-being of all the nations. Its 
genius in this respect, runs parallel with the genius of Christianity, 
though in a lower course — just as subterranean rivers run parallel 
with those that show their silver currents to the sun. Commerce 
repudiates wa)- as an outrage upon its domain. It will not obey 
the laws of war, nor recognize any nation as an enemy with which 
it has or may have intercourse." (Burritt.) 

THE RIGHT OF SEARCH. 

The French government well knew of Jefferson's dislike to 
England, and was only too anxious that provocations should 
arise which would precipitate the United States into a war 
with that power. It was the hope of the French emperor 
that if the British government now refused to annul its edicts 



i8o7] THE RIGHT OF SEARCH 345 

against neutrals, the United States would manifest its resent- 
ment. The maxims of war are by no means in accord with 
the honorable and generous feeling which teaches us to " re- 
joice not when thine enemy falleth, and [to] let not tliine 
heart be glad when he stumbleth:" but contrariwise, it finds 
pleasure and stimulus in every occasion of disaster and error. 
The occasion for which the French waited was even then oper- 
ating, in the resentment manifested by the Americans to the 
right which the British claimed, of searching American vessels 
for British seamen. 

This claim of the right of impressme7it was complicated by 
differences in the laws of the two countries upon the subject of 
naturalization. In the United States, it is sufficient for the latter 
purpose that an alien should have resided five years in the 
country, and have declared before a magistrate his intention 
of becoming a citizen ; and on the other hand, if a native- 
born American desires to be adopted as the citizen of another 
nation, he is at liberty to renounce allegiance to the land of 
his birth. England, however, did not at that time consider 
that its citizens could so expatriate themselves ; but that 
having once been subjects they must always remain so. If, 
therefore, the British government, in its search for deserting 
seamen, could find any whom it could show had been born in 
England (notwithstanding the United States had granted them 
the rights of citizenship), they became liable to impressment 
into the British service. Considering the similarity of lan- 
guage and appearance between the people of the two nations, 
it is apparent that the difficulties in the way of identification 
were indeed great, and, without exceeding caution, must lead 
to disputes of a serious character. 

Hitherto, the practice of searching for British seamen had 

been confined to private vessels ; but, in the summer of 1S07, 

the American frigate Chesapeake was overhauled off the capes 

of Virginia by an English frigate, the Leopard, and four sea- 

p* 



346 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1807 

men, who had deserted from the British service, were ordered 
to be given up. The American commander (Barron) refusing 
the demand, the Leopard fired a broadside into the Chesa- 
peake, when, a number of the Americans having been killed 
and wounded, the requisition was acceded to. The four sea- 
men were surrendered, and the Leopard proceeded on her 
course. In the heat of the excitement produced by this arbi- 
trary proceeding, but without waiting to hear what the Eng- 
lish government had to say about the matter, Jefferson issued 
a proclamation commanding all English war-vessels imme- 
diately to leave the harbors and waters of the United States. 

Before this hostile act on the part of the British occurred, 
James Monroe, the American minister at London, had been 
endeavoring to negotiate a new treaty in lieu of the one of 
1794. The latter, Jefferson strongly disapproved of, because 
it did not forbid the right of impressment. The British gov- 
ernment, while it refused to make an express declaration 
disclaiming this right, professed a willingness to have such an 
understanding upon the subject as would place it " on ground 
which it was both safe and honorable for the United States to 
admit," — that is, that the right should not be taken advantage 
of except very cautiously, and in such cases only as would be 
satisfactory to both parties. There is reason to believe that 
if this treaty had been concluded, the War of 1812 would not 
have occurred. The president declined to submit it to the 
Senate for ratification. 

Soon after the news of the affair of the Leopard and Chesa- 
peake had reached England, and Monroe had made formal 
complaint concerning it, the British government sent an 
envoy to America to adjust the difficulty. He came with 
instructions, however, that before anything could be done, Jef- 
ferson must first recall his proclamation. The envoy stated that 
the fact of his being thus sent over to reconcile the difference 
was evidence of the amicable disposition of his government, 



i8o7] THE RIGHT OF SEARCH. 347 

and therefore that the president's edict against the British 
vessels, which had been issued so precipitately, ought not to 
continue in force. The envoy would not deviate from his 
instructions, and since Jefferson refused to comply therewith, 
the mission of the British minister failed, and with it a second 
opportunity of ending the difficulties. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

WAR WITH ENGLAND DURING MADISON'S ADMINIS- 
TRATION. 

1809 — 1817. 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH ENGLAND. TECUMSEH. 

In the spring of 1809, James Madison, of Virginia, who 
had been Jefferson's secretary of state during both his terms 
of office, succeeded to the presidency in accordance with the 
popular verdict. The new administration began auspiciously, 
for, in the month succeeding Madison's inauguration, an 
agreement was made with David Erskine, the British minister 
at Washington, that if his government would repeal its ob- 
noxious Orders in Council, the president would revoke the 
non-intercourse act. This was mutually assented to, and 
proclamation was immediately made by the president to that 
effect. 

But, unfortunately, Erskine had exceeded his instructions, 
having no power to make such a treaty without the ratification 
of his government, which accordingly disavowed his act. 
Francis J. Jackson was sent hither to supersede him. Instead 
of endeavoring calmly and candidly to adjust the real diffi- 
culties at issue, a fruitless correspondence ensued between 
Jackson and our secretary of state, as to the extent of the 
powers with which Erskine had been invested. Jackson 
having twice intimated that the American government knew 
that Erskine was exceeding his powers, the secretary refused 
348 



iSii] NEGOTIATIONS WITH ENGLAND. 349 

further correspondence, and the minister was dismissed. 
The newspapers accusing him of insulting the government, 
the popular resentment was roused to such a degree that it 
was considered hardly safe for him to travel through the 
country. 

Thus were the purposes of peace a third time defeated, and 
the happiness of a nation of seven million people again put 
in jeopardy because of a mi'-apprehension, which, it must be 
admitted, was of comparatively little importance. The con- 
troversy in regard to the Chesapeake was, however, adjusted 
in 181 1, four years after the occurrence; the British govern- 
ment agreeing to make reparation to the families of the sea- 
men who were killed and wounded, and to restore the two 
sailors (surviving of the four) who had been taken. But the 
good effect of this adjustment was neutralized by another 
exciting and disastrous naval encounter, namely, that between 
the American frigate President and the British sloop-of-war 
Little Belt. Like the first, it occurred off the Virginia capes ; 
the British vessel was disabled, and 32 of her men killed 
and wounded. 

In the year 181 1, there arose into prominence the cele- 
brated Lidian chief and orator, Tecumseh, of the tribe of 
the Shawnees. He and his brother the Prophet, had settled 
on the Wabash river, in the land of the Miamis, upon a tract 
which the latter nation presently ceded to the United States. 
Tecumseh declared that the transfer was not good without 
his consent ; and that the acquiescence of all the chiefs of 
the tribes of the Ohio and the Lakes, was essential to make 
a valid title. In a council held with General Harrison, 
governor of the Indiana territory, the chief insisted upon re- 
taining the land, to which the governor replied that his words 
would be reported to the president, and that he was confident 
the land would not be relinquished, but would be maintained 
by the sword. 

30 



350 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.' [1S12 

Aided by the wily representations of the Prophet, who, 
pretending to a direct commission from the Great Spirit, ex- 
ercised a remarkable influence even over distant tribes, Te- 
cumseh was enabled to gather together a large force on the 
banks of the Wabash, near its confluence with the Tippecanoe. 
Here, in the absence of their chief, the Indians were met by 
a body of troops sent against them by Governor Harri- 
son. The Prophet assumed command of the natives, not 
indeed by mingling in the encounter, but by the performance 
of conjurations on an eminence near the battle-ground. But 
the jugglery failed of its intended effects, for the Indians, 
although they inflicted some loss upon the whites, were obliged 
to retreat. 

In the following year (181 2) Fort Harrison on the Wabash, 
was besieged by Tecumseh's bands. Governor Shelby, of 
Kentucky, issued a call for volunteers, who, uniting with 
those raised in the Indiana and Illinois territories, relieved 
the fort, and thence started on an expedition to destroy the 
villages of the Kickapoos and Peorias. The Indians being 
closely pursued, set fire to the long, dry prairie grass, so that 
the flames advancing rapidly with the wind toward the militia, 
threatened them with destruction ; but by employing the de- 
vice of the "back-fire," often resorted to on the prairies 
during such perils, they escaped the danger. The militia and 
most of the officers becoming dissatisfied with the expedition, 
notified tlie commanding general that they would go no 
fiirther, and, despite his orders, they returned home. A suc- 
ceeding expedition, however, a few weeks later, was success- 
ful in destroying the Prophet's town and a Kickapoo village. 
In the war which now began with the English, Tecumseh, 
taking part with the latter, was made a general, and was in- 
strumental in rendering them important service. 



I8i2] WA/^ DECLARED. 351 

1812. WAR DECLARED. DETROIT AND NIAGARA. OPPOSITION 
TO THE WAR, 

War was formally declared against Great Britain by the 
president, the iSth day of 6th month (June), 181 2 ; but the 
vote by which the measure passed Congress was far from 
unanimous, less than two-thirds of the members giving their 
voice in its favor. 

Although the commercial losses of the country consequent 
upon the Orders in Council and the Decrees, had been very 
great — as many as 900 vessels having been condemned within 
the preceding eight years — yet the national debt by reason of 
economy in the administration, had been reduced one-half. 
This reduction was especially owing to the curtailment of the 
army and navy; the army in 1808, being composed of but 3000 
men. The same year, however, it was ordered to be increased 
to 9000, and afterward to 25,000. This did not include the 
militia of the states, which the president was authorized to 
call upon to the extent of 100,000 men. General Dearborn 
was appointed commander-in-chief. 

Only five days after the declaration of war, the British gov- 
ernment, unaware of the promulgation of that hostile decree, 
repealed its Orders in Council. The real reason for the revoca- 
tion, was the continued interdiction of American commerce 
with England. The loss of the promising trade with this 
country, added to the onerous burden of taxation imposed to 
carry on the continental wars, produced a degree of distress 
in the British manufacturing districts, which was becoming 
almost intolerable. Apprehensive of the still greater miseries 
which must ensue if an American war really occurred, the 
manufacturers raised their voices in protest, and the Orders in 
Council were finally annulled, — but, as we have seen, a few 
days too late to arrest the whirlwind of war. 

The contest began with but little enthusiasm, for many of 



352 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1812 

the American people believed that the aggressions of France 
had been equally as great as those of England, and, that either 
there should have been no fighting at all, or else that France 
also should have been declared an enemy. 

The first movements of the American army proved signally 
disastrous. General Hull, the governor of Michigan terri- 
tory, had command at Detroit of about 2000 troops. Upon 
the Canada side of the Detroit river, where its waters flow 
into Lake Erie, was the British fort at Maiden. Hull crossed 
the river, and was about to attack the fort, when he became 
alarmed at some successes of the Indians under Tecumseh ; 
and, having heard also of the arrival of General Brock, the 
British commander, concluded to retire again to Detroit. 
Here, being quickly besieged by Brock's forces, and doubting 
his ability to make a successful resistance, fearful also of an 
Indian massacre, Hull agreed to a capitulation, 8th month 
(August) 1 6th. 

At Niagara, a body of regular troops and of New York state 
militia under General Van Rensselaer, crossed the Niagara 
river, purposing an invasion of Canada. They advanced a 
few miles, as far as the heights of Queenstown, but, im- 
able to withstand the onset of the British and Indians, were 
forced to surrender. Brock, the British commander, was 
killed in the engagement. Van Rensselaer's successor re- 
newed the attempt at invasion, but the movement only resulted 
in another capitulation. Upon the ocean, however, the navy of 
the Americans met with several successes. The chief of these 
were the capture of the British frigate Guerriere, off the banks 
of Newfoundland, by the American frigate Constitution com- 
manded by Captain Hull; the capture of the Macedonian, a 
British frigate, by Commodore Decatur's vessel the United 
States; and also, off the coast of Brazil, the capture of the 
British frigate Java, by the Constitution, then in command of 
Commodore Bainbridge. 



I8i2] THE WAR OPPOSED. 



353 



Large numbers of vessels, owned by private individuals, were 
likewise fitted out to depredate upon the commerce, and to contend 
with the navy of Britain. During the year 1812, about 250 British 
vessels and 3000 prisoners were taken by the American privateers. 
These vessels, which sailed under the sanction of the government, 
were provided with letters of marque, or, connnissions to make war 
upon and seize the property of their enemies. An act of war by a 
private vessel, without such a commission, was held to be piracy ; 
but in 1856, by the treaty of Paris, privateering itself was declared 
to be an offence against the law of nations, and was thereupon abol- 
ished. The United States, however, was not a party to that treaty. 

Much opposition to the prosecution of the war was mani- 
fested during the year. By the Connecticut assembly a dec- 
l.iration was passed that " they believe it to be the deliberate 
and solemn sense of the people of these states, that the war was 
unnecessary ;" and, referring to the disposition to attempt the 
conquest of Canada, that "a spirit of acquisition and exten- 
sion of territory appears to influence the councils of the na- 
tion." Requisitions being made by the president upon the 
governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, to furnish their 
quotas of militia, and to have them placed under regular 
officers of the army, objection was made that, although power 
is given by the constitution to Congress to call out the militia 
of a state, in cases of insurrection or invasion, yet no such 
exigency of invasion as yet existed. They also objected, that 
the men would be deprived of their constitutional right to 
be commanded by their own officers, and, being placed under 
the control of officers of the regular army, would be liable 
to be shut up in garrisons, or be sent out of the state to dis- 
tant points of military operations, such as the attempted 
conquest of Canada, or wheresoever the president or General 
Dearborn might see fit to designate. The sea-coast, they said, 
would then be undefended, and their ports exposed to the 
depredations of the English navy. 

This controversy was morally valuable for two reasons, to 



354 niSTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. [1S13 

wit : ill manifesting the repugnance of the people to a large 
standing army; and also, as exhibiting a cautious disposition 
against readily furnishing troops upon calls of exigency, which 
might be wrongfully used for purposes of ambition, despotism 
or conquest. 

1813. OPERATIONS ON THE CANADA FRONTIER. RED JACKET 
AND CORNPLANTER. CREEK WAR. 

The election of James Madison to a second presidential 
term, indicated that, unpopular as the war was in some quar- 
ters, it was the sense of the nation that it should be continued. 
In the beginning of the year, the army was disposed in three 
divisions : the westernmost, under General Harrison, was 
near the west end of Lake Erie ; the centre, under Dear- 
born, was at the east end of the lake; while the third, com- 
manded by General Hampton, was in the neighborhood of 
Lake Champlain. 

In the latter part of the First month, at a time of severe 
cold and when the ground was covered with snow, a detach- 
ment of Harrison's force under General Winchester, was sur- 
prised at Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, by a party of British 
under Colonel Proctor, assisted by a thousand Indians led by 
Roundhead, a Wyandotte chief. Winchester was taken pris- 
oner by Roundhead himself; but his men having laid down 
their arms, many of the wounded, in the absence of Proctor, 
were massacred by the Indians, and the village set on fire. 

In the spring. Proctor advanced against Fort Meigs at the 
rapids of the Miami, where Harrison was posted ; but, 
although several hundred Americans were killed in an am- 
buscade laid for them by Tecumseh, the British commander 
failed to secure possession of the fort, and retreated to his 
headquarters at Maiden, on the Canada side of the Detroit 
river. 

The confederacy of the Six Nations and some other tribes 



iSi3] re£) jacket and cornplanter. 



355 



of Indians, took part with the Americans in their contest with 
the British. Prominent in the councils of the Senecas, were 
the chiefs Red Jacket and Cornplanter. Red Jacket, who 
was renowned for his oratory, resided near Buffalo. His best 
known speech was one delivered several years previous to the 
war, upon the occasion of the visit of a missionary, who de- 
sired a conference of the chiefs and warriors. In narrating 
their grievances at the hands of the whites, Red Jacket said — 
"Wars took place, Indians were hired to fight against Indians, 
and many of our people were destroyed. They also brought 
strong liquors among us : it was strong and powerful and has 
slain thousands." And in dismissing the missionary, he said: 
"Brother, we have been told that you have been preaching 
to white people in this plac e : these people are our neighbors 
— we are acquainted with them — we will wait a little while 
and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find 
it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to 
cheat Indians, we' will then consider again what you have 
said." 

When, in 1813, Red Jacket concluded to take up the hatchet, he 
told the American agent that it was only to defend their homes in 
a contest, with the bringing on of which the Indians had nothing to 
do. In after life this celebrated chief, who had once been noted for 
the dignity of his presence and his eloquence and wisdom in council, 
became a drunken sot, remaining to the last opposed to the preach- 
ing of Christianity to his nation. 

Cornplanter, who was a half-breed, was of a more peaceable 
disposition than Red Jacket, his rival. Devoting himself to 
labors for the benefit of his people, he took no active part in 
the war. Unlike Red Jacket, while he deplored the evils of 
intemperance, he was not himself overcome by the thirst for 
strong drink. On the contrary, he exerted himself to suppress 
its use, and therein was a gogd example to his followers, as he 
was never known to have been intoxicated. Furthermore, he 



356 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1S13 

was a total abstainer. "The Great Spirit," he said, "has 
ordered me to quit drinking any intoxicating drink." He 
encouraged the benevolent efforts of the missionaries among 
his people, yet made no profession of Christianity, probably 
having more regard for the civilizing effects of the white man's 
mode of living than for any looked-for good through change 
of heart. He stumbled at a religion which professed to be a 
peaceful one, while it apparently permitted the brethren to 
shed each others' blood. 

Cornplanter received an alli)tment of land on the upper Alleghany, 
just south of the New York border, where he built a village and 
followed the pursuits of agricultural life. He attained the ripe age 
of one hu)idred years. "It was gratifying to notice," said a visitor 
in 1816, "the agricultural habits of the place, and the numerous 
enclosures of buckwheat, corn and oats. We saw also a number 
of oxen, cows and horses, and many logs designed for the saw-mill 
and the Pittsburg market." The reservations of the Senecas are 
still extant, and have long been evidence that the aboriginal manner 
of Indian life is susceptible of a radical alteration and improvement. 

The operations of Harrison and Proctor, in the locality of 
Detroit, have already been alluded to. General Dearborn, 
about the same time, made an effort to invade Canada, having 
landed a small army at York (now Toronto) on the northern 
shore of Lake Ontario. But the attempt at invasion proving 
unsuccessful, the troops returned to Niagara. Another expe- 
dition, which proceeded from Sackett's Harbor, at the eastern 
end of the lake, likewise failed in an attempt to reach Mont- 
real. The British general, Prevost, relieved of the fear of 
attack, then advanced on Niagara, captured the place, and, 
in retaliation for the burning of a Canada village by the 
Americans, despoiled the country around the fort for several 
miles, and laid several settlements in ashes. One of these was 
Buffalo, then a mere village. 

On Lake Erie, the American fleet of nine vessels, com- 



i8i3] BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. 357 

manded by Commodore Perry, engaged and captured, 9th 
month (September) loth, the British squadron of nearly equal 
force, after a severe conflict of three hours. This result gave 
the Americans entire control of the lake, and consequently 
afforded them ready entrance into Canada. Harrison at once 
occupied Maiden and Detroit, and advancing into Canada as 
far as the Moravian village on the Thames, a distance of 80 
miles, gave battle to the forces of Proctor and Tecumseh. 
The scene of this engagement was a swamp near the river, 
skirted by a thick woodland. The ground was well-chosen 
for the display of Indian tactics, but Tecumseh having received 
his death-wound while the battle was at its height, his warriors 
fled, and were followed by such of the British as could elude 
capture. The Ottawas, Miamis and several other tribes, dis- 
heartened at the death of their great chieftain, entered into a 
treaty of peace and alliance with General Harrison. 

On the ocean, there were several severe naval encounters, the 
earliest of which was that between the American ship Hornet, 
commanded by Captain Lawrence, and the British war-sloop 
Peacock. The latter vessel was captured, but it sank while 
the wounded were being removed. Lawrence being afterward 
placed in command of the frigate Chesapeake, sailed out of 
Boston harbor in chase of the British frigate Shannon. The 
Chesapeake proving to be no match for its opponent, was 
obliged to surrender. Lawrence and most of his officers were 
killed. In the Irish sea, the American sloop-of-war Argus, 
was captured by the British sloop Pelican, the commander of 
the former being mortally wounded. Finally, off Portland 
harbor, two hostile brigs, the Enterprise and Boxer, came 
into fierce collision, and, both commanders having been 
killed, the British vessel (the Boxer) surrendered. Of these 
two commanders who went down to death together, each 
guilty of the other's blood, an account says that "their bodies 
were received at Portland with tokens of the highest respect." 



358 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1814 

What a mockery of the divine-given precept to " Love your 
enemies," seems the bestowal of such honor as this ! 

In the meantime, troubles arose with the Creek Indians 
inhabiting the territory of the Alabama. None of the Indian 
tribes was more advanced in civilization than was this nation. 
They were estimated to number 25,000 persons, and were 
mostly engaged in the pursuits of agriculture, being also skilled 
in weaving and in some of the simpler sorts of handicraft. 
Animated by the bad counsels of one of their number, called 
Weatherfokd, they followed the example of Tecumseh in a 
hopeless attempt to rid their country of the whites. Tlieir 
first serious onslaught was directed against Fort Mimms, sit- 
uated in the Tensau district, north of the gulf of Mobile. 
The Creek warriors, entering the open gate of the fort, which 
had been left unguarded, were ftiet by the garrison, when a 
terrible scene of confusion and carnage ensued. Knives, 
tomahawks, swords and bayonets, did their deadly work, until 
only 17 out of the 275 persons within the works remained 
alive. Of those who were killed, many were women and 
children. 

"Blood for blood" was the cry that arose when the news 
of this massacre was received. Troops from Tennessee, 
Georgia and Mississippi, under Generals Jackson, Coffee and 
others, were quickly on the march toward the Alabama country. 
Battles were fought at Talladega, Autossee, and other places, 
all of which resulted in the discomfiture of the Indians, until 
finally, in the spring of 181 4, they made a stand at Tohopeka 
— called by the whites the "Horse-shoe Bend" of the Talla- 
poosa. It is north-east of the present city of Montgomery. The 
Indians, about a thousand in number, had thrown up a breast- 
work across the entrance to the peninsula. But Jackson was, 
as he wrote, "determined to exterminate them," and, having 
surrounded the bend with a cavalry force so tliat none of 
_ them could escape by attempting to cross the river, he com- 



i8i4] BATTLES NEAR NIAGARA. 359 

manded the breast-work to be stormed. The resistance of 
the Indians proving ineffectual, their extermination began : 
550 were killed on the peninsula, and many who endeavored 
to cross the river were shot down by the mounted troops, so 
that it was not believed that more than 20 of the warriors 
escaped. "We continued," wrote Jackson, in his report, 
" to destroy many who had concealed themselves under the 
banks of the river, until we were prevented by night : this 
morning we killed 16 who had been concealed." The Creek 
nation made peace, according to the terms dictated by their 
conquerors, ceding the larger part of their territory to the 
United States. General Jackson was rewarded by receiving 
the appointment of commander of the forces at New Orleans. 

1814. BATTLES NEAR NIAGARA AND PLATTSBURG. WASHING- 
TON CITY TAKEN. HARTFORD CONVENTION. 

The downfall of Napoleon and the partial pacification of Eu- 
rope, enabled the British government to detach a greater force 
than previously, for the protection of Canada : consequently, 
in the beginning of 1814, an army of 14,000 men who had 
fought with Wellington in Spain, was embarked at Bordeaux, 
to join the army of Sir George Prevost in Canada. The 
English naval force was likewise increased, and was ordered 
to effectually blockade the Atlantic coast of the Republic, and 
to devastate the sea-coast cities as occasion should permit. 

In the 7th month (July) an American army of 3500 men 
under General Brown, crossed the Niagara river, and obtained 
possession of the British post of Fort Erie. The Americans 
then advanced along tlie west bank of tlie Niagara to tlie mouth 
of the Chippewa river, where they encountered a strong force 
of the British, commanded by General Riall. The battle of 
Chippewa, which ensued, terminated in favor of the Ameri- 
cans, the British commander beiuir oblij,'ed to fall back until 



360 IIISl^ORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1814 

he reached Fort George, where he was reinforced by General 
Drummond. His army then amounting to 5000 men, Riall 
advanced to Queenstown and thence to Lundy's Lane, where 
a hard-fought battle took place, in which the thunder of artil- 
lery, the curses of the combatants, the shrieks and groans of 
the wounded and dying, mingled with the roar of the adjacent 
cataract. Finally, the Americans, after great sacrifice of life, 
obtained possession of an important fortified eminence, and 
being successful in other directions, obliged their opponents 
to give way. The British generals Riall and Drummond, 
were both wounded ; so also, on the side of the Americans, 
were Generals Brown and Winfield Scott, beside over fifty 
of their officers. The command of the American army then 
devolved upon General Ripley, who retreated to Fort Erie. 
The British endeavored to dislodge the Americans from the 
fort, but the attempt did not succeed. 

While these active operations were transpiring along the 
Niagara river, Prevost with a formidable army had invaded 
the territory of the United States, and, marching down the 
west side of Lake Champlain, had laid siege to Plattsburg. 
Before attempting to capture the place, Prevost awaited the 
result of the contest between the British and American squad- 
rons, both of which had taken positions in Plattsburg bay. 
The American fleet was commanded by Commodore Macdon- 
ough ; the British by Commodore Downie. The engagement, 
which happened 9th month (September) nth, resulted in the 
defeat and capture of the British vessels; whereupon Prevost 
withdrew his army from before Plattsburg, and, leaving be- 
hind him a large quantity of military stores, retreated hastily 
into Canada. 

Farther to the eastward, however, the governor of New 
Brunswick had invaded the district of Maine (which was yet 
an appendage of Massachusetts) and, aided by a British fleet, 
had taken possession of the country as far as the Penobscot 



i8i4] WASHINGTON CITY TAKEN. 361 

river. Another British fleet also appeared on the Connecticut 
coast, but their predatory attempts did not meet with much 
success. 

A far more formidable invasion occurred at the southward, 
having for its initial object the capture of the national capital. 
One part of the British fleet ascended the Potomac, but the main 
portion, under Admiral Cochrane, proceeded up the Patuxent. 
The Americans burnt all but one of their squadron of 17 
vessels, to prevent their falling into the hands of the invaders. 
At Bladensburg, the militia under General Winder, unavail- 
ingly disputed the advance of the British. 

On the evening of the 24th day of 8th month (August), the 
British army under General Ross entered Washington. The 
Capitol, the president's house and other public buildings and 
works, were committed to the flames. But, meeting with no 
display of royalist sentiment on the part of the populace, Ross 
evacuated the city the next day, and re-embarked on the fleet 
in the Patuxent. Designing to attack Baltimore, Cochrane s 
fleet sailed up the Chesapeake to North Point, at the entrance 
of the Patapsco, where Ross' troops were again landed, and 
marched toward the city. In a skirmish which ensued the 
British general was killed. The admiral, finding that the en- 
trance to the harbor was obstructed by sunken vessels, while 
Fort McHenry resisted his efforts at capture, gave the com- 
mand to retire. 

Of several naval encounters which occurred during the year, 
the most important was that between the American frigate 
Essex, commanded by Commodore Porter, and the British 
frigate Phebe. The former vessel had proved very destructive 
to British commerce, but was at last blockaded in the port of 
Valparaiso. Having been detained several weeks. Porter en- 
deavored to make his escape, but the Phebe and another vessel 
disputing the attempt, a fierce contest ensued. Finally the 
Essex caught fire and part of the ammunition exploded ; when, 
Q 31 



362 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1814 

the larger part of the crew being killed or wounded, Porter 
surrendered. 

As the war between the United States and Great Britain 
grew out of the great European quarrel, it was not believed 
that it would continue long after the European powers had 
made peace. Indeed, as early as the spring of 1813, Alexan- 
der, the emperor of Russia, had offered to mediate between 
the two countries. The United States government, accepting 
the offer, had sent three commissioners — John Quincy Adams, 
Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard — to negotiate with those 
to be appointed by England. But the latter power preferred 
that their commissioners sliould treat directly with the com- 
missioners of the Republic, without the intervention of Russia, 
and accordingly it was agreed that negotiations should be 
entered into at Ghent. 

But as that year and the next wore away without anything 
being accomplished, the discontent of the opposition party 
in the United States increased. This opposition, as already 
intimated, was greatest in the New England states, whose 
capitalists, perceiving no necessity for the war, refused to loan 
their money for its prosecution, and were hence accused of 
being enemies to their country. While it is not unlikely that 
self-interest and party-feeling had much to do on the part of 
many with tliis antagonism to the administration, yet there is 
no doubt of the fact that a large number were sincere in their 
convictions that the continuation of the struggle, as well as 
its beginning, were absolutely wrong in principle. 

Near the close of the year (12th month, 15th) an impor- 
tant convention of delegates from several of the New England 
states was held at Hartford, for the purpose of considering the 
defenceless condition of their sea-port towns, the state of the 
country generally, and also to suggest sundry amendments to 
the constitution. The amendments which they agreed to re- 
port were seven in number, to wit: that all acts placing 



i8i4] BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 363 

restrictions on commerce, as also declarations of war, should 
only be valid upon the concurrence of two-thirds of both 
houses of Congress; that a similar majority should be requisite 
for the admission of new states ; that no embargo should be 
laid for a longer period than sixty days; that naturalized per- 
sons should not be eligible to the national offices ; that the 
office of president should not be held by the same individual 
oftener than for one term ; and that representation and direct 
taxes should be apportioned among the respective states 
according to the number of free persons therein. The reso- 
lutions adopted by the convention, and the proposed amend- 
ments, were forwarded by a committee to Congress; but about 
the same time news arrived that a treaty of peace had been 
signed. The proposed amendments were subsequently sub- 
mitted to the several states, but were concurred in by only 
three of them. 

BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS AND END OF THE WAR. 

Although the treaty of peace had been signed by the com- 
missioners at Ghent, on the 24th day of 12th month, 1814, 
yet it was not until after a great battle had been fought at 
New Orleans that the joyful news of the treaty was received 
in this country. Information of a projected attack by the 
British, somewhere upon the gulf-coast, had been divulged 
to Governor Claiborne, of Louisiana. It also became known 
that a large quantity of arms and ammunition, for arming the 
Indians against the United States forces, had been landed at 
Pensacola. Florida still being a Spanish province, General 
Jackson marched against Pensacola and captured it, alleging 
that the Spaniards had violated their neutrality in allowing 
that harbor to be used for hostile purposes. 

Meanwhile, the British squadron, having entered the Gulf 
of Mexico, directed its course to the north of the Mississippi 



364 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1815 

delta, so as to approach New Orleans on the east, by the way 
of Lake Borgne. The flotilla of the Americans was soon over- 
come. A part of the British troops, having been landed at 
the west end of the lake, marched, in a few hours, across to 
the bank of the Mississippi, and posted themselves below the 
city. General Jackson had caused to be thrown up a long 
parapet made of bags of cotton, along the front of which was a 
ditch containing five feet depth of water. The British army, 
numbering about 10,000 men, and commanded by Sir Edward 
Packenham, made two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge Jack- 
son from his position. Finally, having received further rein- 
forcements, a decisive battle was fought on the 8th day of the 
ist month (January), 1815.. Packenham was killed, and two 
of his principal generals were disabled. So severe was the 
loss of the British that, ten days later, they abandoned their 
position and retreated, leaving behind them their wounded 
and artillery. 

The Treaty of Ghent was immediately ratified by the 
American government, yet the result of the contest was but 
another instance of the foolishness and crime of resorting to 
war for the establishment of justice. It was stipulated by the 
treaty that all places which had been captured during the war, 
and which were yet occupied by either of the late contestants, 
should be restored to their respective owners. But, the vexed 
subject of impressment, which, since the abrogation of the 
Orders in Council, was the only pretext for war, remained 
unsettled and unprovided for in any way. It is worthy of 
remark that a better treaty could have been secured before the 
war; for the British government was then willing to disclaim 
all arbitrary acts of impressment, and to leave the topic open 
for debate and probable settlement at a future time. 

James Monroe, our minister to England before the war, stated as 
follows: "By this paper [the one prepared by the British conimis- 



iSi6] LIBERIA. 365 

sioners] it is evident that the rights of the United States were 
expressly to be reserved, and not abandoned, as has been most erro- 
neously supposed ; that the negotiation on the subject of impress- 
ment was to be postponed for a limited time, and for a special object 
only, and to be revived as soon as that object was accomplished ; 
and in the interim, that the practice of impressment was to corre- 
spond essentially with the views and interests of the United States." 



A few weeks after the peace had been ratified, the United 
States government issued a declaration of war against Algiers, 
that country having, like Tripoli a few years earlier, been 
guilty of depredating upon American commerce and exacting 
tribute. 

Two fleets, commanded respectively by Commodores Bain- 
bridge and Decatur, were accordingly despatched to the 
Mediterranean. Having effected the capture of two Algerian 
war-vessels, they sailed into the harbors of the capital cities 
of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. The dey of Algiers submitted, 
and the rulers of the other two states agreed to faithfully 
observe the former treaties which had been entered into with 
the United States. Commodore Decatur, who was greatly 
applauded for his victories, was killed a few years afterward in 
a duel with Commodore Barron. 

In 1816, the territory of Indiana was admitted, the nine- 
teenth state, into the Union. In the same year there was 
projected the American Colonization Society, for the purpose 
of founding, in Africa, a colony to which free blacks could be 
removed, and where they would be afforded favorable oppor- 
tunities for self-improvement. Henry Clay was its first ]ires- 
ident. In consequence of the unhealthy location of the land 
first chosen for settlement, this interesting experiment did not 
at first meet with success ; but in 1821, a much more suitable 
tract of territory on the Grain Coast of west Africa was 
selected, and here arose the republic of Liberia. The num- 
ber of colored immigrants from the United States has never 



366 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1817 

in any one year exceeded eight hundred ; nevertheless, there 
have been considerable accessions of Africans from regions 
contiguous to the republic, and its total population is now 
(1876) upward of 700,000. Schools and places of worship 
have steadily increased, newspapers are published, a postal 
system is in regular operation, and in some of the neighbor- 
ing states slavery has been abolished. Palm-oil and coffee are 
the chief articles of export. Much aid to the enterprise has 
been afforded by Great Britain. 

The charter of the first Bank of the United States had 
expired in 181 1. Numerous state banks were thereupon 
established to supply the commercial need of ready money. 
But during the war which immediately ensued, there was an 
expansion in the currency, followed very soon by a suspension 
of specie payments. Bills, small notes and tickets were then 
issued, not only by the banks, but also by the cities, counties, 
towns, and even by individuals. All these had their own 
local currencies, bearing no fixed proportionate value to one 
another, and, as a consequence, there arose an extensive class 
of brokers. Counterfeiting also became frequent. As a sub- 
stitute for this monetary confusion, Congress cliartered the 
second Bank of the United States, with a capital of 35 million 
dollars. It was authorized to continue incorporated for the 
term of twenty years. Nevertheless, a rigorous commercial 
pressure prevailed, and continued to be felt, until alleviated 
by the general demand for internal improvements. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

PRESIDENCIES OF MONROE AND J. Q. ADAMS. 

1817 — 1829. 



FIRST SEMINOLE WAR. FLORIDA CEDED BY SPAIN. 

The presidential ofifice for the next two terms was filled by 
James Monroe, of Virginia. Daniel D. Tompkins, of New 
York, was continued as vice-president for the same period. 
They were elected, almost without opposition, by the same 
political party (the Democratic-Republican) which elected 
Jefferson and Madison. It was a time when the one political 
party was so strong, and had everything so much the one 
way, that it was called "the era of good feeling." The 
president, upon his inauguration in 1817, visited all the 
northern and eastern states, and was there cordially received. 
Monroe was of a cautious and conciliatory disposition, care- 
ful to avoid coming into conflict with any strong opposing 
interests. According to Jefferson, he was indeed slow, but 
give him time, and his judgment was very accurate. 

As a good token for the beginning of the new administra- 
tion, an agreement was entered into with Great Britain, regu- 
lating and reducing the naval force of each power upon the 
Great Lakes. It was mutually agreed that, upon Lakes Ontario 
nnd Champlain, but one armed vessel should be kept in service 
by either party; and that on either Lakes Erie, Huron or 
Superior, there should be no more than two such maintained 
by each nation, and those armed with a single gun only. It 

367 



36S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1S17 

is not to be believed that the people of Canada or the United 
States have ever seriously regretted this almost complete 
abandonment of their lake armaments; and it will be a year 
to rejoice in when their ocean armaments are similarly cur- 
tailed. Let the national vessels be increased, if need be, for 
every purpose of progress, enlightenment and of international 
good will, but let the menacing cannon be speedily abolished 
from every sea ! 

Several important treaties were made with the Indians. 
The Delavvares, Wyandottes, Shawnees and other tribes, hold- 
ing lands within the limits of the state of Ohio, ceded the 
same to the United States ; being permitted, if they chose, to 
remain on the land, subject, however, to the national and state 
laws. Soon afterward the lands of the Chickasaws, west of 
the Tennessee river, in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky, 
were ceded by that tribe to the government. But with the 
Seminoles, occupying the southern border of Georgia and the 
Spanish territory of Florida, a serious conflict took place in 
1817 and 1818. 

This first war with the Seminoles was owing to several causes, 
the chief of which were, that that tribe had harbored Creek 
Indians, as well as slaves who had escaped from their masters, 
and that there had been several murders upon the Florida 
border, which called for punishment. The hope of getting 
the land readily cleared of the Indian title and of the Indians 
themselves, was a moving motive for a campaign. The enmity 
on the part of the Indians was intensified by one of their 
prophets, as well as by two English traders, who had their 
homes with the tribe. In the latter part of 181 7, a detach- 
ment of forty United States soldiers was sent to the mouth of 
the Apalachicola river, for the purpose of removing some mili- 
tary stores from thence to Fort Scott. On their return they 
fell into an ambuscade of the Seminoles, and all but six were 
killed. General Gaines, commanding in that quarter, de- 



i8i9] FIRST SEMINOLE WAR. 369 

raanded the offenders, but the tribe refused to give them up. 
Whereupon General Jackson, with a body of Tennesseans, 
hastened to the spot. 

The reader will remember that a little prior to the battle 
of New Orleans, Jackson had taken temporary possession of 
Pensacola, on the ground that the Spanish had violated their 
neutrality in permitting the English to land guns and ammu- 
nition there for the Indians. But now, the Americans had 
themselves landed military stores at a Spanish port ; while 
the Indians, resenting tlie conveyance of material intended for 
their destruction through territory claimed by them, under- 
took their defence in the same savage way that Jackson him- 
self would probably have resorted to. But our country's 
dealings with the Indians have been proverbially inconsistent. 
The Seminoles were soon defeated and driven southward, and 
Jackson, entering Florida, took possession of the Spanish forts 
St. Mark's and Pensacola, because he alleged that they har- 
bored the hostile Indians. The two English emissaries were 
captured, and, being tried by a court-martial, were sentenced 
to death, on the charge of inciting the Indians to war. 
Jackson then ordered St. Augustine to be occupied, but this 
high-handed measure was countermanded by the government. 

In the year following the defeat of the Seminoles (1819), a 
treaty was negotiated at Washington between John Quincy 
Adams, secretary of state, and Don Onis, the Spanish min- 
ister, by which the latter agreed, on behalf of his government, 
to cede Florida to the United States for the sum of five million 
dollars. It was provided, however, that the money, instead 
of being paid directly to Spain, should be used to satisfy the 
claims of United States citizens against Spain for spoliations. 

The president and Senate agreed to the treaty at once. 
Upon its being sent to Spain, the king refused to ratify it; 
but, after delaying more than a year, he gave it his sanction, 
probably concluding that it would be wiser to cancel the 



370 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1820 

claims by ceding a possession which had proved of so little 
profit, than to expend any money in its defence. Florida be- 
came a territory of the Republic in 1821, with General Jackson, 
as governor. It was first divided into two districts or counties ; 
the one east of the Suwanee river being called St. John's, and 
the other west of that river, Escambia. 

Mississippi had been admitted, the twentieth state, in 1817 ; 
Illinois in 1818; Alabama in 1819; and Maine in 1820. 
But the petition to Congress in the latter year, for the admis- 
sion of Missouri, gave rise to a highly acrimonious debate, 
growing out of the question whether it should be admitted 
with or without slavery. 

Missouri's chief city, St. Louis, was built on the site of a trading- 
post which had been established there (1763) during the French 
domination. The founder was La Clede, a Frenchman, who had 
been granted a monopoly of the fur trade of the upper Mississippi 
and Missouri. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. THE SLAVE TRADE 
PROHIBITED. 

Although at the period of the Revolution, slavery really 
existed in all the states, Massachusetts alone excepted, yet 
in the forty years which had since elapsed, it had been grad- 
ually abolished from all the section north and east of Maryland 
and the Delaware. Likewise, as a condition of the cession 
by Virginia to the Union, of all the territory claimed by it 
between the Ohio and the Mississippi, slavery was to be ex- 
cluded therefrom ; and hence Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had 
been admitted as free states. On the other hand, when North 
Carolina ceded to the government its right of possession to 
the territory of Tennessee, and Georgia its claim to the 
Mississippi territory, it was with the understanding that the 
institution of slavery should continue therein undisturbed. 



iS2o] THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 371 

Hence the important question which arose in Congress, when 
the admission of Missouri was debated, was, whether such 
admission should be accompanied by any restriction as to 
slavery. 

The advocates of restriction affirmed, that every new state, 
had, like those just instanced, been subject to some conditions, 
and that the power of Congress to impose such had not been 
before denied. The states of the North-West had quietly 
acquiesced in just such conditions, and the rule appeared to 
be properly settled on the ground of usage. But the oppo- 
nents of the measure held the opinion that any such curtail- 
ment of a domestic practice was invidious to the slave-holding 
states by abridging their share of political power, at the same 
time that it was a usurpation of the sovereign rights of the 
states : that a state even if admitted with such a restriction, 
could still establish slavery, because the constitution did not 
forbid it ; and moreover, that it was both unwise and unsafe 
to confine the keeping of slaves within the original territory 
where it prevailed, because, while the whites would be emi- 
grating to the new states of the West, the blacks would all 
remain and by natural increase would eventually outnumber 
and perhaps overwhelm them. 

The votes of the members upon this subject were, neverthe- 
less, largely influenced by another question, namely, the 
policy of protecting home manufactures by imposing a tax 
upon foreign importations. The slave states were almost 
altogether agricultural ; and, inasmuch as manufactured goods 
could be imported from Europe cheaper than they could be 
made and sold at home, it therefore became their interest to 
declare for free trade. But in New England, the interference 
with commerce prior to, and during the war of 181 2, had 
stimulated home manufactures, principally in iron, woollen 
and cotton. Many mills were erected, especially in Rhode 
Island, and large profits, chiefly from the making of coarse 



372 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1S21 

cotton goods, were realized. Upon the conclusion of the war, 
however, cheaper English goods began to compete with the 
American, and consequently the mills of the latter were 
obliged to suspend operations. Then a tariff was asked for, 
and to defeat that measure, the agricultural and commercial 
interests were mostly combined against the manufacturing, in 
a contest for the possession of political power. 

The result of the long and exciting debate in Congress, was 
a resolution of compromise, intended to reconcile the two 
great parties who were struggling, the one to promote, the 
other to restrict, the extension of slavery. The resolution 
was to the effect that Missouri should be admitted without 
any restriction, that is, that it might, if it chose, be a slave- 
holding state ; but that in tht future, no slave state should be 
erected out of United States territory, north of the parallel 
of 36° 30' north latitude, — the northern boundary line of 
Arkansas. The latter territory had been separated from 
Missouri the year previously. 

Before Missouri was finally admitted, in 1821, a constitu- 
tion for the state had been formed, but it met with great 
opposition in Congress in consequence of its containing the 
clause that free negroes and mulattoes should be prohibited 
from coming to or settling in the state. So strenuously did 
the friends of that unrighteous provision hold out for its pas- 
sage, that it was not defeated until its discussion had occupied 
a large part of the session ! The important decision at last 
arrived at was, that all free citizens of the United States 
should be entitled to all the rights guaranteed them by the 
federal constitution, where it declares " that the citizens of 
each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immu- 
nities of the several states;" and therefore that no state law 
infringing those fundamental rights should be passed. 

The ultimate solution of the question of slavery, as affecting the 
peace of the Union, must have been very different had the system 



i822] SLAVE-TRADE PROHIBITED. 373 

been abolished at that time from all the states in which it existed 
north of the parallel of 36° 30'. It is that parallel which forms the 
southern boundary of Kentucky and Virginia, as well as t)f Missouri. 

Some of the foremost men of Virginia strongly favored the ex- 
tinction of slavery. 

Washington wrote as follows, in 1786 : " I never mean, unless 
some particular circumstances should compel me to it, to possess 
another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see 
some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abol- 
ished by law." And again, he says : "There are in Pennsylvania, 
laws for the gradual abolishing of slavery, which neither Virginia 
nor Maryland have at present, but which nothing is more certain 
than they must have, and at a period not remote." By his will he 
directed that all the slaves which he held in his own right should 
receive their freedom. 

Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were similarly persuaded of 
the injustice and immorality of the system. 

At London, during the year 1822, was held a conference 
of English and American commissioners, for the purpose of 
arriving at a mutual understanding with regard to the slave- 
trade. Articles of convention were agreed to, which author- 
ized the commissioned officers of either nation to treat the 
"slave-traders as pirates, — permitting them to seize and con- 
demn the vessels of either country engaged in the traffic, 
without liability of interference by their respective govern- 
ments." 

It will be proper to mention in this place, a few facts, as 
exhibiting the change in public opinion since Sir John Haw- 
kins, in the year 1563, brought the dishonor of the slave- 
traffic upon the English name. The wicked commerce con- 
tinued increasing, until in the twenty years between 1680 and 
1700, not less than 300,000 natives of Africa had been ex- 
ported by Englishmen. From 1700 to 1780, about 600,000 
were exported to Jamaica alone, and with accompaniments of 
cruelty and a terrible disregard for life, such as have been 
already sufficiently set forth. 

32 



374 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1822 

Aiming at the suppression of so notorious an evil, a society, 
of which Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson were 
among the most active members, was organized in London in 
1787. They established the little colony of Sierra Leone on 
the west coast of Africa, for the same purposes that the Amer- 
ican Colonization Society subsequently purchased the Liberia 
tract. In parliament, their philanthropic views found able 
supporters in Wilberforce and Pitt ; the first fruit of their 
labor being an order of the crown in the following year, di- 
recting an inquiry into the state of the slave-trade. An act 
was also passed for the amelioration of the horrors of the 
"middle passage." But it was not until the year 1807, that 
a bill making the slave-trade illegal, received the royal assent. 
Accordingly, the subjects of Britain were forced to carry on 
their nefarious traffic under the cover of the flags of Spain and 
Portugal; and the slave ships being now more crowded than 
ever, it occasionally happened that the miserable negroes were 
tlirown overboard when the risk of capture seemed imminent. 
Four years afterward an act was passed, which made the slave- 
trade a felony and punishable with transportation or long 
imprisonment at hard labor; and at last, in 1822, it was de- 
clared to be piracy, and the participants therein guilty of a 
capital crime. The United States announced its abolition of 
the African slave-trade immediately after Great Britain. 

In 1822, the English parliament declared the ports of the 
West Indies opened to trade with the United States. For 
some years previous, American commerce in the West Indian 
seas had suffered considerably from the depredations of pirates ; 
and, now that an impulse was given to trade in that quarter, 
measures were taken to suppress the evil. Commodore Porter 
was placed in command of a squadron, and sailed to the Carib- 
bean seas. The pirates, prevented from making captures, fre- 
quented the shallow waters of the numerous islands of the 
Antilles, and changed their system of freebootery by depre- 



1 824] MONROE DOCTRINE. 375 

dating upon the settlements or engaging in the slave-trade. 
Hence, the evil was not so much suppressed, as it was scat- 
tered. 

In the same eventful year (1822), a part of the northern 
boundary line between the United States and the British pos- 
sessions, was settled by commissioners appointed in accordance 
with the Treaty of Ghent. The line began at the intersec- 
tion of the northern boundary of New York state with the St. 
Lawrence, thence up the middle of that river, and through 
the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior. 
But the continuation of the line from the west end of Lake 
Superior to the Pacific, was left undetermined. On the Pacific 
coast there was as yet no settlement but that of Astoria, 
founded in 181 1, by John Jacob Astor, as a trading-post of 
the American Fur Company. A few years earlier, the Rus- 
sians had established a trading-depot of the Russian-American 
Fur Company at New Archangel, on the island of Sitka. 

In the President's Message to Congress in 1823, was con- 
tained that announcement of national policy which has since 
been widely known as the " Monroe Doctrine." Alluding to 
the recent formation of the South American republics, he said 
that " we could not view any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing them, or controlling, in any manner, their destiny 
by Europeans, in any other light than the manifestation of an 
unfriendly disposition towards the United States." " Neither 
entangling ourselves in the broils of Europe, nor suffering the 
powers of the Old World to interfere with the affairs of the 
New," he declared to be the American policy, and that "any 
attempt to extend their system [of monarchical government] 
to any portion of this hemisphere, would be dangerous to our 
l)eace and safety." 

In the 8th month (August), 1824, General Lafayette arrived 
at New York, having received from Congress an invitation to 
visit the United States. He spent upward of a year in the 



376 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1824 

country, and visited nearly all the states of the Union, being 
everywhere received with much applause. Congress made 
him a grant of $200,000, besides presenting him with a town- 
ship of land in Florida, in consideration of his Revolutionary 
services. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, SIXTH PRESIDENT. INTERNAL IM- 
PROVEMENTS. 

Four candidates for the presidential office appeared in the 
canvass of 1S24. A plurality of votes was given by the elec- 
tors for Jackson, but as the constitution required a majority 
of the whole number of votes cast, and the people had failed 
of a choice, the election devolved upon the House of Repre- 
sentatives. The result was the election of John Quincy 
Adams, who received the votes of 13 states, while Jackson 
obtained those of but 7. Henry Clay, who had also been a 
candidate for the presidency, was appointed by Adams his 
secretary of state. 

John Q. Adams of Massachusetts, was the son of John 
Adams, the second president. With the political views of 
his father he was in perfect accord. During Jefferson's ad- 
ministration, he occupied for awhile the professorship of 
rhetoric at Harvard University, but soon turned his attention 
again to politics, and, apparently favoring the cause of Presi- 
dent Madison, he was sent by the latter on an embassy to 
Europe, and aided in effecting the treaty with England. He 
was recalled by Monroe, who made him his secretary of state. 
In his inaugural address as president, he made a strong appeal 
to men of all parties to lay aside their political animosities, 
and to cherish those virtues, talents and Christian principles 
which rightly become an enlightened people. 

In marked contrast with the unimpassioned demeanor of 
Adams, the irascible temperament of the "hero of New 
Orleans" was prominently displayed during the recent exciting 



i8i7] JNTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 377 

contest for office. With one political opponent he fought a 
duel ; another he grossly insulted ; and to a third, sent a 
challenge. As might be inferred from his qu-arrelsome dis- 
position, Jackson's conversation was very much marred by 
profanity. 

The subject of the construction of substantial roads and 
the improvement of the navigation of the great rivers, had 
enlisted very general attention, and, either by states or private 
corporations, several important works, such as the great 
central canal systems of New York and Pennsylvania, were 
already in progress. There were many citizens, however, 
who desired that the internal, inter-state improvements, should 
])artake of a national character. With this object in view, a 
committee of Congress had, in 181 7, at the close of Madi- 
son's administration, recommended the construction of mili- 
tary roads, from the military and naval depots, such as Erie, 
Detroit, St. Louis and New Orleans ; also post-roads to con- 
nect the chief cities ; as well as improvements in the inland 
navigation, by the use of water-locks in the principal rivers, 
or by the construction of canals. But no action was then 
taken. 

Next, President Monroe, while conceding the great impor- 
tance of the works asked for in the preceding administration, 
was nevertheless of the opinion that Congress did not possess 
the constitutional power to proceed therein. He advised, as 
the safest course in all such doubtful cases, that the constitu- 
lion should be so amended as to meet the requirements of the 
case. Yet, there were many in Congress who believed that 
that body had already sufficient power granted it for the pur- 
pose, providing that the assent of the states through which 
such roads or canals were proposed to be constructed, was first 
obtained. 

In support of their position they cited certain clauses from 
Section viii of the constitution, wherein are enumerated the 

32* 



378 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1S17 

various powers conferred upon the national legislature, and 
amongst them the following: — 

To provide for the common defence and general welfare 
of the United States. 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and a?nong the 
several states, and with the Indian tribes. 

To establish post-offices and post-roads. 

They also contended that the constitutionality of a principle 
may be settled (even though it be not sanctioned by the 
written law) by the rule of precedent ; in other words, by 
showing that the principle had obtained repeated recognition 
under the different branches of government. As examples of 
such precedents, they instanced the government road from 
Cumberland on the Potomac to the state of Ohio, the one from 
Nashville in Tennessee, and still another from Plattsburg on 
Lake Champlain. Similarly, Congress had passed sundry acts 
which were perhaps not strictly warranted by the written law, 
among which were those authorizing the purchase of the Li- 
brary ; the commission to the artist Trumbull, of Connecticut, 
to execute four large paintings for the capitol ; the grants of 
aid to sufferers in Venezuela ; and the sending of an exploring 
expedition to the Pacific Ocean. 

On the other hand, the opponents of the power in question 
asserted, that the constitutional right to " establish post-roads" 
merely meant that Congress might designate such roads, but 
not construct them ; that money expended for such a purpose 
was for the local and not the "general welfare;" that if it 
was assumed, because of the greater facilities for trade which 
would be afforded, that therefore the power was conferred 
under the right to " regulate commerce," then the same 
agreement would justify an interference in the business of 
agriculture, or of any other occupation of profit ; and finally, 
that the utility and permanency of the Union depended on 
the proper regulation of power, as between the states and the 



iS26] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, SIXTH PRESIDENT. 379 

national government, and that Congress should be ever as 
prompt to guard against the assumption of any powers not 
distinctly conferred, as it should be ready to exercise those 
which have been certainly granted. 

Nevertheless, the result of the debate in the House of Rep- 
resentatives was a resolution affirming that Congress had power, 
under the constitution, "to appropriate money for the con- 
struction of post-roads, military and other roads, and of canals, 
and for the improvement of water-courses." At a subsequent 
session, President Monroe was authorized to have surveys and 
estimates made for such roads and canals as in his judgment 
seemed of prime importance. 

But it remained for Monroe's successor, actually to carry 
out a number of these national improvements. Adams was an 
outspoken champion of the system, as appeared from his mes- 
sage to Congress in the first year of his presidency, in which, 
recommending that the proceeds of the public lands should be 
devoted to public improvements, he affirmed his belief that 
the enhanced value of those lands would amply compensate 
for the expenditures. Grants were therefore made for the 
construction of a canal across tlie state of Delaware, to con- 
nect the Chesapeake and Delaware bays; for the Louisville 
and Portland canal, at the Falls of the Ohio ; and for the 
Dismal Swamp canal in Virginia. Surveys were also made 
for a road from Washington to New Orleans; beside other 
works. 

On the 4th day of 7th month (July), 1826, died John 
Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the former in his 91st year, 
and the latter in his 84th. The two- ex-presidents had been 
first and second on the committee of five appointed by the 
Continental Congress to prepare the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Subsequently, they had stood at the head of the two 
opposing political parties, but now on the 50th anniversary 
of the nation's natal day, they passed out of the world together. 



380 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1825 

The feeling of awe which overspread the people's minds on 
a day when they were indulging in patriotic jubilations and 
festivities, was renewed on the same day of the following year, 
when the death of James Monroe also occurred. 



DIFFICULTIES WITH GEORGIA AND THE CREEKS. A NEW 
TARIFF. 



By the compact entered into in 1802 between the United 
States government and the state of Georgia, the former agreed, 
in consideration of receiving the grant of all the territory 
between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi, to extinguish 
at its own expense, and for the benefit of Georgia, all the 
Indian claims to land within that state "as early as the said 
lands could be peaceably obtained upon reasonable terms." 
Except the north-western portion, which was held by the 
Cherokees, by far the largest part of the territory was claimed 
by the Creeks. Previous to 1825, the United States had suc- 
ceeded in purchasing more thanone-half of the Creek territory, 
but, after that, the tribe began to prize their lands more highly, 
and were naturally averse to parting with their pleasant homes 
altogether. 

Early in 1825, a treaty fraught with very important results 
to the Creeks, was held at a place called Indian Springs. 
Most of the chiefs would not agree to the proposition of the 
United States government for a cession of their lands; but a 
minority of them, the principal one of whom was a half-breed 
named General Macintosh, were anxious to sell, and thereby 
obtain most of the pay for the lands to share among them- 
selves. In direct violation of the laws of their nation, this 
small body executed the treaty, while the government, against 
the protest of the Creek agent and the large majority of the 
tribe, accepted and ratified it. The Indians who signed the 



i828] GEORGIA AND THE CREEKS. 381 

treaty represented but 8 villages or towns: those of 48 towns 
had nothing to do with it. 

The majority of the Indians were highly exasperated when 
it was known among them that the treaty had been ratified. 
Fearful of the consequences of their displeasure, Macintosh, 
accompanied by a {^w chiefs, hastened to Milledgeville,. 
and craved the protection of Governor Troup, as well as of 
the United States authorities. That protection was promised, 
and Macintosh accordingly returned; but his house being 
soon afterward surrounded and set on fire by the Indians, he 
was shot as he was escaping therefrom, and his body thrown 
back into the flames. The Indians claimed that they had but 
punished the delinquent chief according to their law. The 
governor was about to execute vengeance on the perpetrators, 
but finding that the government was opposed to that course 
and was in favor of retarding the execution of the treaty, he 
desisted. 

Nevertheless, the Creek lands were duly surveyed. Over one 
hundred surveyors were commissioned to perform the work, 
so that it might be done right speedily ; and two years subse- 
quently, the entire territory acquired from them was disposed 
of for settlement by lottery. But in the meantime \\\^ gov- 
ernment negotiated another and more equitable treaty with 
the Creeks, by which it was agreed to pay, for the lands 
owned by them in Georgia, the sum of ^217,000, to be di- 
vided between the chiefs and warriors; likewise to give them 
a perpetual annuity of ;^2o,ooo. Separate provision was also 
made for the friends and followers of Macintosh, who were 
rtquired to remove to land to be purchased for them farther 
westward. 

The Congress of 1828, for the better encouragement of 
native manufactures, enacted a new tariff law, by which en- 
hanced duties were laid on iron, wool, hemp, distilled spirits, 
etc. This was received with much dissatisfaction by the com- 



382 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1828 

mercial and agricultural portions of the community. In the 
canvass for a new president, the passage of the act was made 
use of with great effect in exciting public indignation, especi- 
ally in the Southern states. In South Carolina and Georgia, 
where the feeling against it was strongest, their legislatures 
declared the act unconstitutional, unjust and oppressive, and 
that it was not binding on those states which were opposed to 
its operation. Adams and Jackson being again candidates 
for the presidency, the latter was elected by a considerable 
majority. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was chosen 
vice-president. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

JACKSON'S TROUBLOUS ADMINISTRATION. VAN BURKN 
AND HARRISON. 

1829 — 1841. 



REMOVAL OF THE CHEROKEES. 

It has been shown in the preceding chapter, how that tlie 
difficulties between the United States government, the Creeks, 
and the state of Georgia, resulted finally in the purchase of all 
the Creek territory within the latter state. But the dispute 
with the Cherokees was not so soon adjusted. That tribe 
then occupied all the north-western portion of the state, 
which thence became generally spoken of as " Cherokee 
Georgia." Having a printed constitution and code of laws, 
they had declared themselves independent ; while the Amer- 
ican government, by solemn treaty stipulations had guaranteed 
to respect their nationality, and to secure peaceful possession 
of the same to them and their heirs forever. 

The general government, in pursuance of its right to regu- 
late the intercourse law with the Indians, prohibited any 
United States citizens from settling in the territory, or from 
trading with the Indians without a special license. But the 
state of Georgia, having extended the jurisdiction of her 
criminal courts over the territory, became extremely anxious 
that the red men should depart, and made repeated efforts 
to induce them to barter their territory for land beyond the 
Mississippi. The Cherokees, however, were not a roving 
nation like the wild Pawnees and Comanches of the plains, 

3S3 



384 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1S31 

and inasmuch as they cherished a fondness for the name of 
home, they refused to acquiesce in the wishes of their en- 
croaching neighbors. 

Endeavors were made by the Georgians to accomplish their 
purpose by congressional legislation, but they soon perceived 
that any coercive measure would meet with disfavor so long 
as Adams remained president. Nevertheless, in 1828, a bill 
passed Congress, allotting lands beyond the Mississippi, as 
reservations thereafter for all the Indians remaining in the 
states and territories east of that river. Upon the installation 
of President Jackson the following year, the authorities of 
Georgia experienced less difficulty than hitherto in carrying 
out their designs. 

Aware that the white missionaries among the Cherokees 
were mostly opposed to the removal of the tribe, a bill was 
passed by the Georgia legislature that no whites would be per- 
mitted within the territory. The missionaries refusing to take 
the hint, were arrested, treated with much indignity, and 
being brought before a state court, two of them were sen- 
tenced to four years' confinement with hard labor, in the 
penitentiary. In 1831, the governor ordered the survey of 
the Cherokee lands to be made ; the next year they were all 
disposed of by lottery, and the year afterward were divided 
and organized as ten counties of the state of Georgia. As 
had been done in the case of the Creeks, a treaty, not accept- 
able to the majority of the nation, was made by United States 
commissioners, with a part of the Cherokees. Notwithstanding 
the strenuous opposition of John Ross, the principal chief, 
Congress ratified the treaty. Its principal conditions were 
as follows : 

The Cherokee nation, in consideration of the sum of 
5,000,000 dollars, were to relinquish all their lands east of the 
Mississippi. There was granted to them, west of that river, 
a tract of seven million acres of land, which the government 



1S32] NULLIFICATION. 385 

Stipulated should in no future time be included ivithi a the limits 
of any state or territory. That the Cherokees, whenever Con- 
gress made provision for the same, should be entitled to one 
delegate in the House of Representatives. The removal was 
stipulated to take place within two years from the ratification 
ofthe treaty. 

It was in the spring of 1838 that troops of the militia began 
to gather the Cherokees into camps, preparatory to their re- 
moval to the far west, but it was late in the summer before 
the tribe, to the number of 16,000, sorrowfully departed from 
their homes. The journey occupied five months. Although 
the exiles were not harshly treated, yet, as a necessary conse- 
quence of such a removal, many of them perished. Upon 
reaching their reservation, it was found that not less than 
4000 had died on the way ! 

The history of the Chickasaws and Choctaws in Alabama 
and Mississippi ; the work of missionaries among them ; their 
advancement in civilization ; and the successful efforts of the 
whites to obtain their lands, were similar in character to what 
has been said of the Cherokees and Creeks, and need not be 
repeated here. 

NULLIFICATION. THE BLACK HAWK AND SECOND SEMINOLE 
WARS. BANK TROUBLES. 

Jackson's accession to the presidency was marked by a more 
general dismissal of office-holders and the appointment of 
party favorites, than had been practiced by any of his prede- 
cessors. Intelligence, integrity and faithfulness in the dis- 
charge of duties, were forced to succumb to the unpatriotic 
dictum that " to the victors belong the spoils." Whilst under 
all the presidents who preceded him, there had been but 64 
persons removed from office, Jackson, during his eight years' 
rule, removed 690, and filled their places with his political 
partisans. 



386 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1832 

In the Congress of 1832 there was introduced and carried, 
an act for the revision of the tariff, by which the duties upon 
many articles were increased. This gave great dissatisfaction 
to the cotton-growing states, but it was only in South Carolina 
that open resistance was offered to the collection of the duties. 
A nullification ordinance was passed by a convention of dele- 
gates, who declared the law to be unconstitutional, and asserted 
that the government had no authority to enforce such against 
the will of any state. A proclamation was then issued by 
President Jackson announcing that he would not permit the 
law to be disregarded. Calhoun, the vice-president, resigned 
his office, and, having been at once elected to the Senate, 
counselled opposition. Governor Hayne, of South Carolina, 
likewise called upon the people of that state not to heed the 
proclamation of the president. The legislature of the state 
passed laws forbidding the collection of the revenue within 
its limits, threatening also to secede and organize a separate 
government if the attempt was made. 

While the government was preparing to carry out measures 
of coercion, and South Carolina was organizing troops and 
providing munitions of war, a warm debate upon the principles 
and powers of the general government was carried on in the 
national Congress. Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and 
Henry Clay, of Kentucky, were two of the most prominent 
speakers upon that occasion. In opposition to the doctrine 
of nullification, it was strongly declared that the national 
government was not a mere compact of independent, sovereign 
states, any one of which had power to withdraw from the 
Union at pleasure, but that the Constitution was the work of 
the people of the states collectively, and that they had con- 
ferred upon the Supreme Court alone the authority to decide 
in cases of dispute between any of the states and the general 
government. 

The excitement was finally allayed by the passage of a 



i:;32] FAILURE OF UNITED STATES BANK. 387 

Compromise Bill, which was introduced by Henry Clay. It 
provided for a gradual reduction of the impost rate for the 
succeeding ten years, until it should reach the revenue standard 
contended for by the opponents of the original bill. 

The night of the 13th day of nth month (November), 1832, 
is memorable on account of the occurrence of a wonderful nat- 
ural phenomenon, — a great shower of aerolites or "shooting- 
stars." This remarkable display was witnessed with great 
astonishment, and even trepidation, throughout all the United 
States. The meteors, which varied in size from a moving 
l)oint of light to globes of the moon's apparent diameter, 
were estimated to have numbered several hundred thousand. 

The popular ferment accompanying the nullification pro- 
ceedings was scarcely allayed, when a new occasion of excite- 
ment arose, growing out of the action of the president in 
regard to the Bank of the United States. The bank, according 
to its charter, was the legal depository for the public funds; 
and, by a late resolution of Congress, that body had expressed 
the opinion that the funds were safe in the bank's keeping. 
But the president being of a different opinion, isstied an order 
on the secretary of the treasury, Wm. J. Duane, to remove 
the government deposits to certain State banks. The secre- 
tary refusing to obey the order, Jackson dismissed him from 
office, and appointed Roger B. Taney in his place ; and by 
the latter, orders were issued to the collectors, forbidding 
them to deposit the public funds in the United States Bank. 
This action resulted in tlie failure of that institution, and con- 
sequently of wide-spread financial distress, the effects of which 
will be presently considered. 

In the meantime, a war had arisen with the Sacs and Foxes 
and the Winnebagoes of Wisconsin. A chief named Black 
Hawk was the leader in this contest, which was brought about 
by an irruption of miners into the territory of the Winneba- 
goes, upon the discovery of the Galena lead-mines. Red Bird, 



388 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1835 

a chief, retaliated by murdering several whites, but he and 
others were captured by the troops sent against them. The 
chief dying in prison, Black Hawk, his friend, continued the 
unequal quarrel. After several battles had been fought, Black 
Hawk and other chiefs being also taken prisoners, were 
brought to Washington and the principal eastern cities, that 
they might take note of the power of their captors. The Win- 
nebagoes, with the Sacs and Foxes, then made a treaty, 
ceding their ten million acres of land to the government, 
for an annuity and a yearly supply of provisions. 

In 1835, a second war broke out with the Seminoles, who 
had refused to emigrate to the trans-Mi.ssissippi lands which 
had been set apart for them. Many of the troops sent against 
them perished in ambuscades, or by diseases generated by the 
miasma of the swamps ; while the Indians, readily retreating 
to their hiding-places in the Everglades, were enabled to con- 
tinue the war for seven years. A noted chief, Osceola, was 
captured, and being confined in Fort Moultrie, died there of 
a fever. The war terminated after a cost to the government 
of 30,000,000 dollars, beside the loss of many lives. 

In the same year that the Seminole war broke out, there 
occurred a great fire in the city of New York. The principal 
buildings in the commercial part of the city were destroyed, 
involving a loss of seventeen million dollars. Since 1835, 
there have been other very destructive fires: in Philadelphia 
(1850), Portland (1866), Chicago (1871), and Boston (1872). 

The locality of the city of Chicago was first visited by 
Marquette. In 1795 ^^ United States government purchased 
of the Indians several acres of land on which to build a 
stockade fort. This structure was destroyed in the war of 
1812, and the garrison massacred by the Indians. Fort Dear- 
born, on its site, was then built: but it was not until 1832, 
at the time of the Black Hawk war, when traders and others 
followed a detachment of troops thither, that Chicago began 



iS37] FINANCIAL TROUBLES. 389 

to be settled. Its rapid growth, since then, has been unpre- 
cedented in the history of American cities. 



FINANCIAL TROUBLES DURING VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRA- 
TION. HARRISON. 

Martin Van Buren of New York, who had held the office 
of vice-president the preceding four years, succeeded Jackson 
as president, in 1837. The period of his administration was 
marked by a great commercial revulsion. The national 
debt, it is true, had been entirely paid off, and the finances 
of the country appeared to be in a prosperous condition. But 
upon the failure of the United States Bank, great numbers of 
State banks sprang into existence, which, by making liberal 
loans and fostering the spirit of speculation, caused the busi- 
ness of the country to receive a very unhealthy stimulus. A 
principal object of speculation were the public lands, the sales 
of which amounted even to millions of dollars in a month. 
The tide of immigration from Europe had begun ; cities and 
villages were laid out by hundreds, and large improvements 
were started by the states. At the same time foreign mer- 
chandise was imported in great quantities, much to the detri- 
ment of home industries. 

But Congress having passed a law to distribute among the 
states their respective proportions of the surplus treasury funds, 
the banks in which these funds had been deposited, were 
called upon to pay the same. President Jackson, also, just 
before his term expired, had issued an order making the pur- 
chase-money of public lands payable in specie only. This 
double demand for the funds on deposit and the specie, of 
which latter indeed the banks had very little, caused their 
suspension. Hence the business of the country was prostrated 
at a blow ; the great improvements ceased, and many thou- 
sand men were thrown out of employment ; while suspen- 

33* 



39© HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1837 

sions and failures in business followed each other quickly. 
The failures in New York city alone, aggregated 100 million 
dollars. 

By the states, loans to the amount of 100 million dollars had been 
made, chiefly for the purpose of developing their resources by 
making internal improvements. Several of the states failed for 
awhile to pay their interest on the stock, — Florida and Mississippi 
utterly repudiating their obligations. As a large part of the money 
had been obtained in Europe, the credit of our nation received a 
shock from which it did not recover for many years. 

The failure of the banks necessarily involved the government 
itself in the prevailing financial embarrassment, and accord- 
ingly an extra session of Congress was called by President 
Van Buren, to provide measures for meeting the exigency. 
He recommended the issue of Treasury notes to the amount of 
10 million dollars, receivable in payment of the public dues. 
Also, that there should be an independent treasury and sub- 
treasuries, as depositories for the government funds. The 
bill passed the Senate, but failed in the House. A few years 
later, however, it received the sanction of both houses of 
Congress. 

In 1837, a rebellion against the British government broke 
out in Canada. Citizens of Vermont and New York took 
part with the insurgents ; but as the government had no wish 
to become entangled in a war with Great Britain, a proclama- 
tion was issued by the president, admonishing those who had 
violated their duties as citizens, to* return peaceably to their 
homes, warning them of the consequences of their failure so 
to do. Happily the advice was heeded, and the Canadian 
insurrection soon came to nought. 

Arkansas, which had been detached from Missouri in 1819, 
was admitted into the Union in 1836. Michigan was ad- 
mitted in 1837, the twenty-sixth state. 

For the purpose of making researches in the Pacific and 



1S41] WILKES EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 391 

Antarctic regions, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, accompanied 
by a number of men of science, was placed in command 
of an exploring expedition of six vessels. They discovered 
numerous islands in the Pacific, and sailed along 1700 miles 
of the coast of the Antarctic continent. After an absence of 
Tour years the expedition returned, having made many dis- 
coveries, not only of lands, but in all departments of natural 
liistory. The "Narrative of the United States Exploring 
Expedition," in five large volumes, was published soon after- 
ward. 

General Wm. Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was the choice of 
the people for president, to succeed Van Buren. John Tyler, 
of Virginia, was elected vice-president. This election was char- 
acterized by more excitement and enthusiasm than had been 
witnessed upon any similar occasion preceding. High hopes 
were indulged by the people generally, that the new adminis- 
tration would inaugurate some change of policy which would 
inure to the well-being of the country at large. Harrison at 
once called a special session of Congress, but, being taken 
suddenly ill, he died just one month after the day of inaugu- 
ration. John Tyler, the vice-president, succeeded him. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OF TYLER AND POLK. THE MEXI- 
CAN WAR. 

1841 — 1849. 



THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

At the special session which had been called by the late 
president, Congress repealed the Sub-Treasury act, as it was 
believed that the locking up of the public funds exerted a 
continued pressure upon the money market to the prejudice 
of the business of the country. A general Bankrupt Law was 
also passed, but it did not continue long in force. 

It had been the general supposition that Tyler was in favor 
of the establishment of a National Bank, and it was upon that 
issue, which met with the popular favor, that he and Harrison 
had been elected. But when a bill was passed by both houses 
of Congress, chartering such a bank, the president refused to 
sign it. Another bill was passed, modified mostly in accord- 
ance with his suggestions, but this also was vetoed. All the 
members of his cabinet, except Daniel Webster, the secretary 
of state, immediately resigned their places. 

Webster was then engaged in negotiations with the British 
government upon the subject of our north-eastern boundary, 
that question appearing likely to give occasion for serious dis- 
pute. On the part of Great Britain, a special minister. Lord 
Ashburton, was sent over to the United States, to arrange a 
compromise, and also to settle the controversy which had 
grown out of the Canadian-border disturbances. Had not a 
mutual spirit of conciliation prevailed, a war between the two 
32? 



i824] THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 3^3 

countries would have been precipitated. Commissioners from 
Maine and Massachusetts being invited to Washington, to 
confer with Webster and the En-glish minister, the boundary 
line between Maine and New Brunswick was very soon ar- 
ranged. Two other important matters were provided for in 
the AsHBURTON Treaty, namely, the rendition of fugitives 
from justice, and an agreement that the two nations should 
maintain armed vessels on the coast of Africa to aid in the 
suppression of the slave trade. 

But the most important event of Tyler's administration was 
the annexation of Texas. That State had for years been 
much coveted by the people of the Southern states, as a region 
in which slavery ought to flourish. As early as 1819, a certain 
James Long, accompanied by about 75 lawless adventurers 
from Mississippi, entered the state, and issued a proclamation 
calling upon the people to unite their territory with the 
American Union. Long styled himself "President of the 
Supreme Council of Texas;" but his party, after some of 
them had been killed, was quickly dispersed by the Spaniards, 
A similar attempt, headed by a man named Edwards, was 
made a few years later, but it resulted in the same manner as 
the first. 

In 1821, the Spanish authorities granted to Moses Austin, 
of Missouri, the privilege of introducing 300 families into 
Texas, one of the conditions of the concession being that the 
immigrants should be Catholics. Austin dying, the grant was 
renewed to his son, who settled a slave-holding colony on the 
Rio Brazos. But in 1824, Mexico, to which Texas was sub- 
ject, became a republic, free from the dominion of Spain ; 
and, five years later, its congress passed a decree manumitting 
every slave in Mexican territory. The hopes of the slave- 
holders of the Southern states were dampened by this act, 
and accordingly, there being no pretext for a war with Mexico, 
propositions were made for the purchase of Texas. The sum 

R* 



394 HISTORY OF THE UN/TED STATES. [1836 

of one million dollars was first offered by President Jackson, 
and then five million ; but both offers were promptly rejected. 

The plans for acquiring the state by lawless irruption and by 
purchase, having failed, the next method tried was that of 
colonization ; in other words, making the country, by immi- 
gration, so decidedly American, that its future acquisition would 
be assured. Several joint-stock companies were also formed in 
the city of New York, who dealt in the Texan land-scrip, and 
hence the interested holders of this scrip constituted a party 
who were very desirous that Texas, whatever the means em- 
ployed, should be brought into the Union. In the year 1836, 
the American settlers, finding themselves fully in power, 
issued a declaration of independence of Mexico ; and only 
fifteen days later, adopted a constitution establishing perpetual 
slavery in the province. Fifty of the 57 signers of this 
declaration were emigrants from the slave states, and only 
three were Mexicans by birth. 

At the time of the declaration, Santa Anna, who had 
made himself dictator of Mexico, demanded tiiat Texas 
should return to its allegiance. This being refused, a contest 
resulted, in the course of which Santa Anna was taken 
prisoner by the Texans, who were led by General Samuel 
Houston. The Mexican general, however, was soon re- 
leased. Houston was inaugurated president of Texas in the 
same year (1836), and the independence of the state was 
acknowledged the following year by the United States gov- 
ernment. In the meantime, demand was made upon Mexico 
for a settlement within t^ao weeks, of certain alleged wrongs 
and indignities committed against United States citizens. 
Mexico offered to submit them to arbitration, but our govern- 
ment appeared to be so anxious to have a plea for a war by 
which Texas could be secured, that it delayed four months 
before accepting this equitable method of settling the 
difficulty. 



i844] TEXAS ANNEXED. 395 

As to the nature of these claims, their extravagant charactermay 
be inferred from the fact that of n million dollars demanded 
as damages, the umpire allowed the United States less than one- 
fifth of that sum. As an instance : a certain Mexican schoolmaster 
and printer, who afterward became a naturalized citizen of the 
United States, produced a bill of nearly $400,080, for damages in 
having to leave his school and press during one of the revolution- 
ary struggles in Mexico. The umpire cut down the claim to one- 
eighth of the original demand. Another, claimed the astonishing 
sum of over SSooo for the loss of 56 dozen of bottled porter, proba- 
bly worth not over J200, 

Such was the aspect of Mexican and Texan matters when 
Tyler became president. But Mexico itself had claims for 
damages against the United States, which it, also, requested 
should be settled by arbitration ; and that as the referees in 
the previous case had met in Washington, they should in the 
present instance convene in the city of Mexico. A treaty to 
this effect was agreed to, but the Senate of the United States 
refused to accept the proposition. A motion in the Senate to 
ratify a treaty with Texas, providing for its annexation to the 
Union, was defeated in 1844; but, in the following year, 
was carried. This act, however, was only secured by the 
subterfuge of voting on a resolution of annexation, which 
merely required a majority of the votes; whereas the ratifi- 
cation of a treaty would have required two-thirds of the 
whole number. 

Under the old colonial charter of Rhode Island, only those 
of its citizens, owning a certain amount of property were en- 
titled to vote. In order to effect the abrogation of this re- 
strictive law, the " Suffrage" party arose in the state. At the 
election of 1842, the candidate of the "Law and Order" 
party was defeated, and Dorr, the governor-elect, took pos- 
session of the state arsenal, so as to be prepared to maintain 
his position. But the militia being called out by the party 
of Law and Order, the Suffragist governor sought safety in 



396 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1846 

flight. Subsequently, the Suffragists were overpowered by 
United States troops, and Dorr was arrested, tried for treason, 
and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He was, however, 
afterward pardoned, and in the meantime a new and more 
liberal constitution was adopted by the people. 

Iowa and Florida were admitted into the Union as states 
in 1845. I'"* the same year, James K. Polk, of Tennessee, 
the nominee of the party of annexation, was inaugurated 
president. 

WAR WITH MEXICO. ANNEXATION OF CALIFORNIA AND 
NEW MEXICO. 

It was not only the territory of Texas which had been cov- 
eted by many of the people of the United States, but also 
those parts of the Mexican possessions known as California and 
New Mexico. An envoy who was sent to Mexico to treat for 
the latter provinces, was also instructed to offer, in part pay 
for the said territory, the extravagant claims for damages 
made by United States citizens. But the envoy, Slidell, not 
being promptly received by the Mexicans, General Zachary 
Taylor was ordered, in the spring of 1846, to proceed with 
an army to the Rio Grande. Now, the Mexican government 
asserted that the Nueces river (east of the Rio Grande), was 
the true Texan boundary, and consequently that the United 
States troops had invaded their territory. 

A Mexican army which had assembled at Matamoras, near 
the mouth of the Rio Grande, having crossed that river, a 
battle was fought with the army of General Taylor, at Palo 
Alto ; but the Mexicans were badly defeated. The follow- 
ing day they were routed again, at Resaca de la Palma, and 
General Taylor crossing the Rio Grande, occupied Mata- 
moras. The party of annexation, in Congress, rejoicing that 
they had forced the Mexicans to strike the first blow, and 
being aided by the votes of most of the opposition, — who 



1S46] IVAJ? WITH MEXICO. 397 

had not the moral courage to stand by their convictions of 
right, — at once declared war, voted money for carrying it 
on, and authorized the president to order out an army of 
50,000 volunteers. 

Nearly at the same time that war was declared against 
Mexico, a treaty was concluded with Great Britain relative to 
the Oregon boundary. The settlement of the north-western 
boundary, like that of the north-east, had long been a subject 
of negotiation, and for awhile the discussion wore a threat- 
ening aspect. The United States, by virtue of the treaty of 
1819 with Spain, claimed all the " Florida" territory on the 
Pacific, north of the 42d parallel — or northern boundary of 
California — as far as the Russian possessions. Their claim 
was also based on the explorations of Lewis and Clarke 
(1804-1S06), and the founding of the colony of Astoria. On 
the other hand, the claim of Great Britain rested upon the 
fact of settlements having been made by subjects of that 
country, on the north branch of the Columbia, and on Era- 
ser's river. By the treaty of 1846, the 49th degree of north 
latitude was agreed upon as the international boundary-line. 

There being now no fear of a disagreement with Great 
Britain, the war against Mexico was prosecuted with vigor. 
General Taylor advanced his army to Monterey, the capital 
of the province of New Leon, and after a sanguinary struggle 
of three days, the Mexican general Ampudia agreed to terms 
of capitulation. At this juncture the existing government of 
the country was overthrown by Santa Anna (who had been 
previously banished by his political enemies), whose influ- 
ence it was thought would be exerted in favor of peace. 
Yet such, was not the result, for he soon appeared at the head 
of an army of 20,000 men not far from the American lines 
at Buena Vista. But, the Mexicans were again repulsed, 
and, abandoning their camp in great disorder, retreated south- 
ward . 

34 



398 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1847 

In the early part of 1847, General Winfield Scott, who had 
been appointed to the chief command of the American forces, 
landed an army near Vera Cruz, and began to invest that 
place. Although strongly defended by the fortress of San 
Juan d'Ulloa, the city was taken after a few days' bombard- 
ment. About 3000 bombshells and the same number of round 
shot were thrown into the devoted city during its brief in- 
vestment. The loss of life among the women, children and 
non-combatants was reported to have been greater than was 
that of the soldiery. The invading army, leaving this scene 
of havoc, began its march westward toward the Mexican 
capital. At Cerro Gordo, fifty miles distant from Vera Cruz, 
they again encountered and defeated the forces of Santa 
Anna, and thence advanced with little opposition to Puebla. 
At Contreras, and Churubusco, where desperate battles were 
fought, Santa Anna being still further discomfited, requested 
an armistice. But, although granted, it continued in force 
only two weeks. 

The army of General Scott then continued its advance. 
Another fierce struggle ensued at Molino del Rey, and a final 
one at Chapultepec, a rocky fortress close to the capital. 
The remnant of the Mexican army, seeing that their city 
would be unable to withstand the assault of the invaders, fled 
])recipitately, and on the 14th day of 9th month (September) 
the American army occupied the capital. 

While these events were transpiring in the heart of the- 
Mexican republic, its possessions in the north were being also 
invaded by United States troops. An army under General 
Kearney set out from Missouri, and crossing the plains, a 
distance of a thousand miles, arrived at Santa Fe, which city 
was occupied without opposition. Kearney issued a procla- 
mation declaring himself governor of the province, and ab- 
solving the inhabitants from their allegiance to Mexico. 
From Santa Fe, a small force under Colonel Doniphan in- 



iS+S] IVAR WITH MEXICO. 399 

vaded the state of Chihuahua, and having defeated the 
Mexicans at Bracito and at the Pass of Sacramento, they took 
possession of Chihuahua, the capital. 

A small party under Captain John C. Fremont was ex- 
ploring the territory of California when the war broke out. 
Fremont had, previous to this, explored the Rocky Mountain 
region from the South Pass to the Three Peaks of Colorado, 
and also the Great Basin from the Rocky Mountains to the 
Sierra Nevada. Uniting his forces with the American settlers, 
and co-operating with Commodore Stockton who commanded 
the Pacific fleet, they soon overcame the opposition of the 
natives. In a few months all California was in their possession. 

Early in 1848 a treaty was concluded with Mexico. New 
Mexico and California were ceded to the United States, and 
the Rio Grande accepted by Mexico as the boundary sepa- 
rating it from Texas. In return, the United States agreed to 
pay Mexico 15 million dollars, and to assume the claim for 
damages, amounting to three and a half million dollars, said 
to be due to United States citizens. The money cost of 
the Mexican war was about 100 million dollars. Although 
comparatively few soldiers of the Americans were killed in 
battle, yet thousands died of the vo7nito and other diseases. 
At Perote, there were 2600 American graves of the victims of 
disease, and at the city of Mexico, the deaths, for awhile, were 
1000 a month. For nearly two years as many as 140,000 
men were employed as soldiers, teamsters, artificers, etc., and 
hence the otherwise useful labor of many of these was lost to 
the country. 

William Jay remarks, that "the president would have shrunk 
from offering 50 millions for the very land which he has now bought 
at the sacrifice of such a vast amount of blood and treasure. It is 
impossible to resist the conviction that, by honest negotiation, we 
might have become the masters of these territories without crime, 
witiiout human butchery, and at a far less cost in money than the 
sum we have paid. * * We should, however, take a most errone- 



400 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1848 

ous and limited view of the cost of this war to the United States> 
were we to confine our estimates to the millions which have been 
expended in its prosecution, or to the personal sufferings it has 
occasioned. Before we can sum up the total cost, we must add to 
the blood, and the groans, and the treasure we have bartered for 
victory and conquest, the political and moral evils the war has be- 
queathed to the nation — evils as extensive as the bounds of the 
Republic, and whose effects upon the happiness of individuals will 
continue to be felt when time shall be no more." 

During the exciting debates in Congress upon the acquisi- 
tion of California and New Mexico, a proposition was intro- 
duced by David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, which provided 
that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should be per- 
mitted in any ceded territory. This amendment to the bill 
was termed the " Wilmot Proviso," and the discussion which 
was provoked thereby, made it apparent that the true object 
of the war on the part of the pro-slavery party was not to 
avenge iinputed wrongs on the part of Mexico, but simply to 
add to the extent of slave territory. The Proviso passed the 
House, but failed in the Senate. 

Just before the ratification of the treaty with Mexico, 
rumors of the discovery of gold in California, reached the 
eastern states. The shining particles were first noticed (1847) 
by a laborer who was engaged at work upon a mill-race on one 
of the tributaries of the river Sacramento. Intense excitement 
followed the intelligence, and shortly, thousands of emigrants 
for the Eldorado of the West were on their way, — some going 
in caravans across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains; 
others by ship to the istlimus of Panama, and thence by the 
Pacific ; and others again by the long route around Cape 
Horn. San Francisco at once became the favorite city and 
port. Speculation was rife in the land, and, along with 
the intense thirst for gold, gambling, intemperance and 
ruffianism prevailed there for a number of years. Silver and 
quicksilver were also discovered, while the teeming products 



1848] WISCONSIN ADMITTED. 401 

of a fertile soil soon passed out through the " Golden Gate" 
to other Jess favored quarters. 

Wisconsin was admitted into the Union in 1848. The 
presidential election of that year resulted in the choice of 
General Zachary Taylor, of Kentucky, for the chief office. 
Millard Fillmore, of New York, was chosen vice-president. 



34^ 



CHAPTER XXX. 

TAYLOR. FILLMORE. PIERCE. BUCHANAN. 

1849 — 1861. 



THE SLAVERY AGITATION. 

For twelve years following the passage of the Missouri 
Compromise act, the subject of slavery was not agitated in 
Congress. Public opinion, however, at the North, was by 
no means at rest, and the Anti-Slavery party or Abolitionists 
were yearly gaining in numbers. The American Anti-Slavery 
Society was organized at Philadelphia, in 1833, with Arthur 
Tappan as its first president. A few years previous, Benjamin 
Lundy, of Baltimore, had published a small journal, "The 
Genius of Universal Emancipation," while William Lloyd 
Garrison, in Boston, issued "The Liberator." During the 
presidency of Jackson, prohibition memorials began to be 
presented to Congress, while papers and illustrated publica- 
tions, designed to generate a feeling in favor of emancipation, 
were mailed to the slave-owners and others at the South. 
When Jackson recommended to Congress that a law should 
be passed prohibiting the use of the mails for the latter pur- 
pose, the excitement became intense; exhibiting itself at the 
North, in violent attacks upon the Abolitionists, and at the 
South, in the breaking open of some of the post-ofifices and 
the destruction of the unwelcome documents. 

The debates upon the annexation of Texas and upon a war 
with Mexico, showed that the extension of slavery was viewed 
402 



1S50] THE SLAVERY AGITATION. 403 

with favor by the administrations of Tyler and Polk. The 
opponents of slavery now brought the subject forward as one 
which should properly find expression through the medium of 
the ballot-box. The Abolitionists, or those who were in favor 
of the utter extinction of slavery, were comparatively few in 
number. The Free-Soil party, although equally persuaded 
with the Abolitionists of the moral wrong of the slave system, 
favored the recognition of the constitutional limits of slavery 
as established by the Missouri Compromise, but were opposed 
to the creation of new slave states. At the presidential elec- 
tion of 1840, this party polled but 7600 votes; but in 1848 
their candidate received the suffrages of nearly 300,000 
citizens. 

In 1849, California, which had rapidly increased in popu- 
lation, following the discovery of gold, adopted a constitu- 
tion prohibiting slavery, and asked to be admitted as a state. 
Such a result of the acquisition of Mexican territory had not 
been looked for by the advocates of slavery. There were 
violent debates in Congress, with threats of secession, and 
protests that as slavery was a domestic institution, it should 
not be interfered with. The Anti-Slavery party, on their side, 
also advocated separation, declaring that a republic like the 
United States could not with any consistency support so un- 
righteous a custom as slavery, and that the obligation on the 
part of the Northern states to return fugitive slaves ought not 
to be assented to. 

The first message of President Taylor to Congress, and the 
only one which he lived to submit, recommended that Cali- 
fornia should be at once admitted into the Union. Also, that 
New Mexico and Utah should be organized as territories, 
and, when prepared to be received into the Union, that they 
be allowed to settle the question of slavery to suit themselves. 
A few months later, on the 9th day of 7th month (July), 1850 — 
the day of the great fire at Philadelphia — the president died. 



404 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1850 

The following day, Millard Fillmore, the vice-president, was 
inaugurated as chief magistrate. 

In the meantime a compromise measure, which, on account 
of the diversity of its provisions was styled the Omnibus Bill, 
was introduced by Henry Clay, and, after a lapse of several 
months, was passed. It provided for the admission of Cali- 
fornia; the organization, without mention of slavery, of the 
territories of New Mexico and Utah ; the adjustment of the 
Texas boundary ; the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and the enactment of a Fugitive Slave Law, more 
stringent in its provisions than was the act of 17S7. The 
legislatures of some of the free states had forbidden the use 
of their jails for the confinement of fugitive slaves, and jus- 
tices of the peace had refused to take any action in such cases ; 
but, by the new bill, these were referred to the adjudication 
of United States commissioners, speciallay ppointed. 

Henry Clay was really an opponent of slavery, but he was also 
an earnest advocate of federal union, and hence, being anxious to 
allay the slavery agitation, was willing to compromise a good prin- 
ciple by favoring a temporizing measure. His conservative views 
were well expressed when he said : " I am unwilling that the pos- 
terity of the present inhabitants of California and New Mexico 
-should reproach us for doing just what we reproach Great Britain 
for doing to us. If the citizens of those territories come here with 
constitutions establishing slavery, I am for admitting them into the 
Union ; but then it will be their work and not ours, and their pos- 
terity will have to reproach them and not us." 

Utah, or " Deseret," as it was first called, was organized as 
a territory, with Brigham Young, an elder of the Mormons, 
as its first governor. The Mormon sect was founded in 1827 
by Joseph Smith, a native of Vermont, who pretended that 
he had received revelations from heaven, by means of which 
he was put in possession of a number of golden plates covered 
with Egyptian characters, which he alone could decipher. 



1852] THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 405 

The "Book of Mormon," framed therefrom, contained the 
tenets of the new religion. Smith and several hundred fol- 
lowers settled in Missouri; but becoming obnoxious to the 
inhabitants, they took up their abode in Illinois, where they 
founded a city called Nauvoo, on a bluff overlooking the Mis- 
sissippi. The "prophet" being slain in a trouble which arose, 
the Mormons again took to flight. Led by several of their 
chosen elders, they crossed the Rocky Mountains and settled 
in the Great Basin of Utah, chiefly at their city of Great Salt 
Lake, which was founded in 1847. Polygamy, a favorite 
domestic institution of the Mormon sect, being opposed to 
the law of the land, the territory of Utah has not yet been 
received as a state of the Union. 



THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. TROUBLES IN KANSAS. 

General Scott was nominated by the Whig party for presi- 
dent, in 1852 ; but th€ popular vote was given in favor of his 
Democratic opponent — Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire. 
W. R. King, of Alabama, was elected vice-president. 

The most important measure of Pierce's administration was 
the bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. 
They comprised that part of the original Louisiana purchase 
west of Missouri and north of the parallel of 36° 30' ; and 
consequently, in accordance with the provisions of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, slavery was excluded therefrom. Portions 
of it had been allotted to sundry Indian tribes who had re- 
moved from the territory north-west of the Ohio, but their 
presence was not desired by the white settlers who now began 
to locate in those parts. 

A bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska 
was introduced into the Senate by Stephen A. Douglas, of 
Illinois. An important clause of the bill was a provision for 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It provided that any 



4o6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1856 

territory, no matter whether north or south of the compromise 
parallel, should be privileged, upon adopting a constitution 
and becoming a state, either to permit or to exclude the in- 
stitution of slavery. Numerous petitions were presented to 
Congress, requesting that body not to make any alteration in 
the law as it stood. Nevertheless, the bill, after a long dis- 
cussion, received the sanction of Congress and the signature 
of the president. 

Upon the passage of the bill, in the spring of 1854, active 
measures were taken by adherents of both the Free-Soil and 
Pro-Slavery parties, to people the territory of Kansas with set- 
tlers favoring their respective views. Aid societies were formed 
in several of the Northern states to assist emigrants to reach 
the territory and to establish homes there. At the elections 
held for the purpose of choosing a delegate to Congress and 
to elect members to the territorial legislature, each party claimed 
that its candidates were successful. The members chosen by 
the Pro-Slavery party met, but their assembly being declared 
by the Free-Soil party illegal, their acts were repudiated on 
the ground that armed men from Missouri had controlled the 
polls. 

A convention of Free-Soil men then assembled at Topeka 
and framed a constitution rejecting slavery, which, being 
submitted to the people, was ratified by them. Meanwhile, 
outrages of every kind were frequent, — murders, robberies, 
illegal assaults and destruction of property, — in all, or most 
of which, the Free-Soil settlers were the worst sufferers. The 
delegate to Congress was also refused a seat by that body ; 
but a committee being appointed to proceed to Kansas, the 
charge was established that the elections had been carried by 
fraud. Order was partially restored in the territory in 1856, 
when John W. Geary was appointed governor by the presi- 
dent. At that time the whole country was thrown into a fever 
of excitement upon receiving intelligence of a brutal assault 



lS57] EMANCIPATION SCHEME. 407 

made by Preston Brooks, a member from the South, upon the 
person of Charles Sumner, senator from Massachusetts. It 
occurred while the Senate was in session. 

At the next presidential election (1856), there were presented 
the nominees of three political parties: that of the Repub- 
licans, the opponents of the extension of slavery into the 
territories ; that of the Democrats, who favored slavery in the 
territories, if it was so willed by the people ; and that of the 
American, or so-called "Know-Nothing" party, who were 
opposed to popery and foreign influence. James Buchanan, 
of Pennsylvania, the candidate of the Democrats, was elected. 
John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, was chosen vice- 
president. Buchanan had served in both houses of Congress, 
had been minister to Russia and to Great Britain, and also 
secretary of state under President Polk. 

But the Kansas troubles were not yet ended. Governor 
Geary having resigned, the president appointed as his suc- 
cessor, Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi. Walker ordered 
a new election for delegate to Congress and for members to 
compose a territorial legislature. The Free-Soil candidates 
were elected. In the meantime, however, delegates of the 
Pro-Slavery party met at Lecompton, and framed a constitution 
adopting slavery. This they submitted to the people, and 
claiming that it was ratified, sent it to Congress; but that 
body having ordered a new election, the Lecompton constitu- 
tion was rejected by a heavy majority. 

Minnesota was received into the Union in 1857; Oregon, 
the thirty-third state, in 1859. 

THE SCHEME OF COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION. SECESSION. 

The efforts made by the government to carry out the pro- 
visions of the Fugitive Slave law, produced a feeling of con- 
tinual irritation on the part of the North, which was in no wise 



4o8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1857 

lessened by the condition of affairs in Kansas, where the con- 
tests between the two political parties frequently resulted in 
bloodshed. Hence it became increasingly evident to think- 
ing minds that a far more terrible struggle would ensue, 
filling the whole land with mourning and desolation, unless 
endeavors were quickly put forth to compass the difficulty. 
Unquestionably, slavery must be abolished, but as yet the 
methods of Unconditional Abolition and of Gradual Eman- 
cipation found few supporters. The Liberia scheme of Col- 
onization had withdrawn but a few thousands of freed blacks 
from the American soil, and did not materially affect the 
question of slavery. But the plan of Compensated Emanci- 
pation, which was now brought to the notice of the people, 
appeared to offer an equitable solution of the formidable 
problem. 

The friends of this movement contended that the founders 
of the Republic had not established a union in fact, however 
it had been so declared in name, and that, before the sections 
North and South could be confederated in one compact and 
homogeneous nationality, the true union of the states would 
have to be won. The method by which this was to be at- 
tained was to remove the cause of the estrangement, to wit, 
slavery; but furthermore, this boon of union and peace was 
woxih paying for, if it could be secured in no other way. In 
brief, what would the friends of the slave, of union, and of 
peace, be willing to give, to avert disunion and civil strife ? 

It was proposed by the advocates of this measure, in order 
to secure the immediate, and at the same time peaceful, 
liberation of the slaves, that emancipation should take the 
form of a national a.c\.. In making this proposition they did 
not concede that the slave-owner was really and morally en- 
titled to any pay for the human chattels whom he held, but 
they believed that it would be preferable to concede such a 
point rather than that the slaves should either continue many 



1857] EMANCIPAllO.V SCHEME. 409 

years in servitude, or that their fetters should be stricken off 
through a fratricidal strife which must bring numberless evils in 
its train. They therefore proposed that "all the jjublic lands 
west of the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean should be 
set apart for defraying the expense of the complete and imme- 
diate emancipation of all the slaves in the Union, and for pro- 
viding a fund for their education and elevation after their 
manumission." 

As has been shown in the preceding pages, the moral 
responsibility for the existence of slavery in the United 
States, rested upon the North as well as the South. Northern 
ship-owners and merchants participated in the gains of the 
slave traffic, while cotton, tobacco and rice, the products of 
slave labor, largely passed through the hands of northern fac- 
tors, yielding them lucrative profits. Likewise, the merchants 
of the North either imported or made almost all the manu- 
factured goods which were used by the South. Therefore, 
said the advocates of compensation, as the North had formed 
an alliance with the South in the fostering and perpetuation 
of slavery, whereby the system had become nationalized, so 
should it be willing to pay its proportion of the price of ex- 
tinguishing slavery, whatever might be the pecuniary expense 
involved. In carrying out the plan of national indemnifica- 
tion, a brotherly partnership would be formed and a glorious 
consummation arrived at, which would bless equally both sec- 
tions of the Republic. 

Estimating the number of slaves at 4,000,000, and assuming 
the sum of ^250 as an equivalent of value for each man, 
woman and child, the purchase-price of their freedom would 
have been a thousand million dollars. The sale of the pub- 
lic lands would have paid the interest and gradually the 
principal of this total, and have left a large sum to be devoted 
to the education and improvement of the subjects of manu- 
mission. The money received would also have served as a 
s 35 



4IO HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [i860 

stimulus to Southern labor and manufactures. Possibly this 
view of the case may not have been acceptable to many of 
the manufacturers of the North. However that may be, the 
scheme of Compensated Emancipation — of which Elihu 
BuRRiTT, of Connecticut, was the foremost advocate — was 
received with but little favor by the people at large. The 
nation was not prepared to listen to such calm and philan- 
throi)ic counsel, and, choosing to follow the bent of passion, 
the price it paid in the end has been the proof of its folly. 

The border troubles iiad scarcely ended, when, in the loth 
month (October), 1859, a rash undertaking, having for its object 
the liberating of the slaves by a general uprising on their part, 
was attempted by a certain John Brown and his sons, who 
had been prominently engaged in the Kansas troubles. Ac- 
companied by a very few followers, they crossed the Potomac 
at Harper's Ferry, expecting to be joined by the blacks. 
Not receiving the immediate co-operation vviiich they had 
looked for, they took possession of one of the shops of the 
United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, but were very 
soon overpowered and captured by government troops. They 
were handed over to the authorities of Virginia, and were 
tried and executed before the end of the year. 

The presidential election of i860, was one of momentous 
import. The Democratic and pro-slavery party which had 
mostly controlled the government from the beginning of 
the century, perceived that public opinion had undergone a 
change and that their power was likely to be disturbed when 
submitted to the decision of the ballot. At the Democratic 
nominating convention which was held at Charleston, the 
Soutliern delegates withdrew, and named as their candidate 
John C. Brecken ridge, of Kentucky. Those who remained, 
nominated Steplien A. Douglas. The American party nomi- 
nated John Bell, of Tennessee ; the Republicans, Abraham 
Lincoln, of Illinois. The latter receiving a plurality of votes 



1 86 1] SECESSION. 41 1 

was elected. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was chosen vice- 
president. 

There had been many undisguised declarations on the 
part of people at the South, that if Lincoln was elected, it 
would be the signal for the states of that section to withdraw 
from the Union. Accordingly, no sooner was the result of 
the election known, than the legislature of South Carolina 
called a convention, which, on the 20th day of the 12th 
iiionth declared by a unanimous vote that " the union now 
subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under 
the name of the United States, is hereby dissolved." In the 
First month of 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and 
Georgia, followed the example set by South Carolina, and 
shortly afterward the rest of the Southern states cast their lot 
for secession. In the Second month, delegates from the se- 
ceded states met at Montgomery, Alabama, and having 
adopted a constitution similar to that of the United States, 
they organized the " Confederate States of America," with 
Jefferson Davis, as president, and Alexander H. Stephens, 
vice-president. Richmond, Virginia, was designated the 
capital. The senators and representatives from the South in 
the national Congress, resigned their seats, and most of the 
officers in the army from that section also gave in their resig- 
nations, and joined the cause of the Confederacy. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

PRESIDENCY OF LINCOLN. THE CIVIL WAR. 

1861— 1865. 



The states of the South had now carried into practice the 
right which had been always claimed by the Anti-Federalist 
or States-Rights party, namely, that any state, might, in ac- 
cordance with the terms of the federal constitution, withdraw 
from the Union, without hindrance on the part of any or all 
of the remaining states. But the majority of the people were 
imbued with the opinion that the compact between the various 
states was intended to be more national in its character — that 
it was not a simple federation or league of sovereign states — 
and therefore that there could be no severance of any of the 
integral parts of the Republic. Such also was the opinion of 
President Lincoln. Concerning slavery, he said, in his inaugu- 
ral address (1861) : " I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, 
to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where 
it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have 
no inclination to do so." 

But the institution of slavery was, nevertheless, the impel- 
ling cause of secession, and for its perpetuation the states of 
the South had thus united together. They also believed that 
their sympathizers at the North were so many in number, 
that coercion would not be seriously attempted. But when, a 
month after Lincoln's inauguration, a fleet was ordered to the 
relief of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and the bom- 
bardment of the fort by Confederate batteries was followed by 
412 



i86i] BULL RUN. 413 

its surrender, there arose a sudden outburst of excitement at 
the North, and tumultuous outcries for vengance. Through- 
out the land the press and the pulpit joined in the mad demand 
for war. Had those who called themselves " leaders of the 
flock" exerted themselves as peacemakers, the war might still 
have been averted. But, their fealty to Christ was overborne 
by the passion of the hour ; and hence it was that the churches 
both North and South, untrue to the peaceful testimonies 
of the gospel, became the strongest bulwarks of this wicked 
strife. 

A call for 75,000 volunteers was at once issued by the gov- 
ernment. The foremost of these, in passing through Balti- 
more on their way to the national capital (4th month 19th), 
were mobbed by Southern sympathizers, and several lives were 
lost on each side. About the same time, the government 
arsenal at Harper's Ferry was seized by the Confederates, and 
great quantities of arms and ammunition were secured. To 
prevent the navy yard and the war vessels at Norfolk from 
falling into the same hands, they were destroyed by the United 
States officers stationed there. The place was then evacuated. 

The first important engagement of the war south of the Po- 
tomac, occurred near Fortress Monroe, on Hampton Roads, 
where General Butler was in command. This engagement, 
known as the battle of Big Bethel, resulted in defeat to the 
Union troops. But a far greater check to the cause was ex- 
perienced, when the main army of volunteers, commanded by 
General McDowell, met the Confederates under General 
Beauregard, at Bull Run, a few miles south-west of Washing- 
ton, 7th month (July) 21st. A panic seized the Union troops, 
who. fled in disorder toward the capital, leaving a great quan- 
tity of artillery and stores on the field. About 3500 of thejr 
number were killed, wounded or missing. 

In consequence of the discomfiture at Bull Run, it became 
apparent to the president and Congress that the suppression 

35* 



414 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1861 

of tlie rebellion by force of arms would require a much larger 
levy of militia than had been anticipated, and accordingly a 
call was issued for an army of 500,000 men. General Scott, 
at his own request, was relieved from the ehief direction of 
the armies, and his place was filled by General McClel- 
I.AN, who also had immediate command of the army of the 
Potomac. A part of this army, under Generals McCall and 
Stone, was stationed on the Maryland side of the river not far 
from Edwards' Ferry. Upon hearing that Leesburg had been 
evacuated by the Confederates, the Union army crossed the 
Potomac, opposite the steep declivity of Ball's Bluff, but were 
surprised by the Confederates and routed. Upon reaching 
the water, many of the Unionists who attempted to escape by 
swimming, were shot ; others, being swept away by the cur- 
rent, in the darkness were drowned. The battle of Ball's 
Bluff occurred on the 20th of loth month (October), 1861. 

In west Virginia, the Unionists, under General Rose- 
crans, were mostly successful. In Missouri, although the 
number of slaves was less than one-tenth of the population, 
the bias of the people was not decidedly in favor of the 
Union. The pro-slavery politicians were active and influential, 
and by their exertions a secession governor (C. F. Jackson) 
was elected. General Harney was sent to take command of 
the Western Department, and having established at St. Louis 
his headquarters, that city was kept out of the hands of the 
Secessionists. He was soon succeeded by General Fremont, 
and the latter again by General Halleck. Missouri was the 
scene of much partisan or guerilla warfare. In a desperate 
battle which was fought at Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, 
General Lyon, in command of the LTnion army, was killed. 
The state was cleared, for awhile, of Confederate troops, by an 
army under General Curtis. 

The national navy having been greatly increased, the 
Southern coast from Virginia to Texas was blockaded ; while 



i862] MASON AND SLIDE LL. 415 

gun-boats were constructed for the Western rivers, to carry on 
offensive operations against the fortifications, which the Con- 
federates quickly erected thereon. Before the end of 186 1, the 
Confederate defences at Port Royal entrance, South Carolina, 
were captured by the fleet of Captain Dupont, assisted by the 
land forces of General Sherman; and in the 2d month of 
1862, an expedition under General Burnside and Commodore 
Goldsborough, captured the forts on Roanoke Island. The 
Confederate flotilla withdrew to Elizabeth City, and being 
followed by the Union fleet, they were there burnt, to escape 
capture. Nearly at the same time. Fort Henry on the Ten- 
nessee, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, were taken by 
the gun-boats of Commodore Foote, assisted by the army of 
General Grant ; and a few weeks later, Nashville, the 
capital of Tennessee, was occupied by the Union army. 
Andrew Johnson, formerly chief magistrate of the state, 
was appointed military governor. 

The Confederates being anxious to obtain a recognition of 
their cause on the part of Great Britain and France, James 
M. Mason and John Slidell were appointed to lay their case 
before those powers. To elude the blockade, the two ambas- 
sadors made their way first to Cuba, and then by another 
steamer, the Trent, took passage for St. Thomas; intending 
to leave for England in the next packet from that island. But 
on their way out, when not far north of the island of Cuba, 
the Trent was intercepted by the National steamer San Jacinto, 
in command of Captain Charles Wilkes. Mason and Slidell 
were taken on board, and sent to Fort Warren in Boston 
harbor. Much elation was manifested by the people of the 
North at this important capture ; but the president, aware of the 
fact that it was a violation of the very principle concerning the 
rights of neutrals, for which America had formerly contended 
with England, did not endorse the act. Hence, when a demand 
was made by the British government for the restoration of the 



41 6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1862 

captives, they were given up and a suitable acknowledgment 
made; not, however, without some delay, during which pre- 
cautionary preparations for war were made by Great Britain, 
involving that country in an expenditure of several million 
dollars. 

Often have the embers of war been fanned into a flame by the 
reckless representations and evil surmisings of the daily press ! 
When Louis Napoleon elevated himself to the imperial throne of 
France, the alarm was sounded by the daily journals of England, 
encouraged by reports from their correspondents at Paris, that the 
country was in imminent danger from the sinister designs of the up- 
start ruler. The British parliament thereupon assumed a bellige- 
rent attitude, and passed an act for enrolling 80,000 militia. Mean- 
while, lest the journals should really push the country into war, 
earnest measures on the part of sober-minded people were put for-, 
ward to stay the foolish ])anic. " One of the expedients adopted," 
says Burritt, "was the instituting of a direct correspondence be- 
tween 50 of the largest towns in Great Britain, and the same number 
of towns in France. Manuscript communications, signed by a large 
number of influential citizens, deprecating most earnestly the senti- 
ments of the British press toward the French government and 
people, were sent across the channel, and were responded to most 
generously. One of these ' Friendly Addresses,' as they were 
called, was signed by 4000 of the first merchants and bankers of 
London. All these communications asked the French people not 
to regard the sentiments expressed towards them by the British 
journals as the sentiments of the English nation. A few weeks 
passed away, and this bubble of suspicion burst." 

In the 3d month (March), 1862, the Confederate iron-clad 
ram, the Merrimack, came out of Norfolk harbor, and attacked 
the National fleet which was lying in Hampton Roads. The 
Cumberland received such a severe blow from the beak of the 
Merrimack, that she began at once to fill with water. All 
who could, made their escape; but the dead, the sick and 
wounded, to the number of about 100, were engulfed be- 
neath the waters. The Congress was set on fire by red-hot 
shot from the Merrimack, and the other National vessels were 



i862] MlCLELLAN S REPULSE. 417 

obliged to withdraw. The Merrimack returned to Norfolk ; 
but the next day, there arrived in Hampton Roads, an iron 
vessel of novel construction, lying very low in the water and 
surmounted with a turret. It was called the Monitor. This 
vessel engaged the Merrimack, which, becoming considerably 
disabled, withdrew from the encounter. Norfolk wals shortly 
afterward taken possession of by National troops under Gen- 
eral Wool. 

A movement upon Richmond, the Confederate capital, 
being determined on, General McClellan decided on making 
the approach by way of the James river peninsula. Large 
bodies of troops and military stores were embarked for For- 
tress Monroe, and early in the 4th month (April), the army 
began its march toward Yorktown. The Confederates under 
Generals Magruder and Johnston, slowly retreated, while 
McClellan's forces continued up the peninsula, until they had 
arrived within a few miles of Richmond, where General 
RoBT. E. Lee was in command. At Fair Oaks a battle was 
fought, which resulted in severe loss to both sides. Finally, 
in the latter part of the 6th month (June), there ensued a 
series of sanguinary engagements, lasting six days, at the end 
of which time McClellan, being continuously repulsed, gained 
the cover of his gun-boats at Harrison's Landing on the James 
river. The attempt of the Nationals had ended in total 
failure. 

In the meantime, the Shenandoah valley was the scene of 
active operations. A National army under Generals Pope and 
Banks, endeavored to keep the Confederates there in check, 
and prevent them from uniting their forces with the army of 
General Lee. But in several battles and many skirmishes 
which took place, the Confederate forces of Generals Evvell 
and '"Stonewall" Jackson were mainly victorious. Lee's 
army also, relieved by the withdrawal of McClellan, pressed 
northward, and when near the Potomac, defeated the army of 
s* 



4i8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1862 

Pope at the second Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas. The 
Nationals then withdrew within the fortifications around 
Washington. Shortly after, the president issued a call for 
several hundred thousand additional troops. 

Lee's army, exultant at their late successes, having crossed 
the Potomac by the fords in the vicinity of Point of Rocks, 
prepared to advance either against Washington or into Penn- 
sylvania. But at South Mountain and Antietam, their onward 
march was checked by the troops of McClellan, and on the 19th 
of the 9th month (September), Lee re-crossed the Potomac. 
Evacuating Harper's Ferry, which Jackson's army had recently 
captured, Lee retreated up the Shenandoah valley. General 
Burnside was placed in command of a National army, and 
directed to make a third advance upon Richmond, but being 
signally defeated in a battle fought at Fredericksburg near the 
close of the year, he withdrew into winter-quarters on the 
north bank of the Rappahannock. 

In the West, the National cause, subsequent to the occupa- 
tion of Forts Henry and Donelson, had been more successful. 
The Confederates, evacuating their strong position at Columbus, 
on the Mississippi below Cairo, intrenched themselves at 
Island Number Ten, still farther down the river. Under tlie 
superintendence of General Beauregard, the island fortifica- 
tions had been placed in a condition for defence which was 
considered almost impregnable. After it had sustained a 
bombardment of several weeks by the gun-boats of Commo- 
dore Foote, the land forces of General Pope cut a canal through 
a bend of the river so as to flank its position, and the garrison 
was then obliged to surrender. General Beauregard, however, 
escaped, with a considerable body of troops, and moved to 
the relief of the army of General A. S. Johnston, at Shiloh 
and Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee. The Union army, 
under General Grant, was temporarily repulsed there, but 
. being joined by reinforcements under General Buell, they 



1 862] CAREER OF THE ALABAMA. 419 

drove the Confederates to their defences at Corinth, an im- 
portant railway junction in north-eastern Mississippi. Here, 
on the 3d and 4th days of the loth month (October), a great 
battle was fought, which resulted in the further retreat of the 
Confederates southward. Rosecrans, the Union commander, 
returned into Kentucky, and on the last day of fhe year en- 
gaged and defeated the Confederate army under General 
Bragg at Murfreesboro. 

Meanwhile, the fleet of Commodore Foote had continued 
down the Mississippi, captured Fort Pillow, and on the 6th 
day of the 6th month (June), had taken possession of Memphis. 
New Orleans was already in possession of the Nationals, 
having been captured by the fleets of Admirals Farragut and 
Porter, after several severe encounters with Confederate gun- 
boats, and a terrific bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. 
Philip. General Butler, commander of the troops, was placed 
in charge of the city. Fort Pulaski, the chief defence of 
Savannah, and the forts on the Florida coast, at Fernandina, 
Jacksonville and St. Augustine, were likewise given up to the 
National forces. Fort Pickens, at the entrance of Pensacola 
bay, had not fallen into the hands of the Confederates. 

The latter, although not in a condition to maintain a regu- 
lar navy on the ocean, succeeded, with the co-operation of 
sundry ship-builders and sympathizers in England, in fitting 
out a number of privateers, which proved very destructive to 
the commercial vessels of the North. The principal of these 
cruisers were the Nashville, Sumter, Florida, Shenandoah and 
Alabama. Of these, the Alabama, under Captain Semmes, 
achieved the greatest notoriety. For a year and a half, avoid- 
ing contact with armed vessels, it continued its career of 
burning the merchant-ships belonging to the Unionists. Owing 
to the fact of its being a British vessel, manned chiefly by 
British subjects, and armed and supplied in a British port, 
the losses by its depredations were the occasion of a heavy 



420 N/SIVRV OF THE UNITED STATES. [1862 

claim upon Great Britain, as will be hereafter considered. 
The Alabama was finally ca])tured in the English Channel, off 
the harbor of Cherbourg, by the National vessel Kearsarge. 

During 1862, Congress passed a law abolishing slavery in 
the District of Columbia. As a conciliatory measure toward 
the slave-holders of the border states, a plan of partial and 
gradual emancipation, with compensation for the slaves, also 
passed Congress, and received the approval of the president, 
who believed that it w^ould detach the border slave-labor states 
from the Confederacy, and hence speedily effect an end of the 
war. There was likewise proposed a plan for colonizing the 
freedmen somewhere on the American continent. 

But these plans not meeting with any strong demonstrations 
of approval, the president, after considerable hesitation, 
agreed to issue a proclamation decreeing absolute emancipation 
to the slaves in any state which should be in rebellion on the 
first day of the year 1863. He also declared it would be the 
purpose of the government not to repress any efforts which 
the slaves might make to secure their freedom. It was sup- 
posed that the slaves would take advantage of the procla- 
mation to band together and aid in putting down the rebel- 
lion. The foregoing preliminary proclamation was issued the 
22d day of 9th month (September), 1862. None of the states 
having accepted its provisions within the one hundred days 
allowed therefor, there accordingly appeared, on the first day 
of the ensuing year, the Proclamation of Universal Emanci- 
pation. 

During the first few years of the war, large loans for defray- 
ing the expenses of the same, had been authorized by Con- 
gress. But the great and increasing expenditures which the 
war entailed ; the decline in the revenue and in the public 
credit, caused a distrust of paper money to be felt, and a con- 
sequent appreciation in the value of coin. The banks there- 
upon suspended specie payments, the last day of the year 



1863] GETTYSBURG. 421 

1 86 1. To provide a national currency, Congress passed a bill 
early in the following year, authorizing the issue of legal tender 
Treasury notes; while, to increase the revenue, taxes were 
imposed on goods imported and manufactured," on incomes, 
bills of exchange, legal papers, etc. Finally, in 1863^ a law 
was enacted for the formation of National batiks (their cur- 
rency guaranteed by the government), in lieu of the former 
state banks. 

In the spring of 1863, forty-eight counties of northern and 
western Virginia, not sympathizing with the secession of the 
eastern section of tlie state, formed a provisional government, 
and were admitted into the Union under the title of the state 
of West Virginia. Kansas had been admitted in 1S61. 
Nevada, the thirty-sixth state, followed in 1864. 

General Hooker, who had superseded Burnside in command 
of the army of the Potomac, crossed the Rappahannock with 
his army, purposing to flank the army of Lee at Fredericks- 
burg. The battle of Chancellorsville on the 29th of the 4th 
month (April) ensued, terminating again in disaster to the 
army of the assailants, of whom over 12,000 were killed 
and wounded : the Confederate loss was not quite so heavy. 
Hooker retreated across the river, and the armies for a short 
time resumed their former respective positions. 

Lee being then reinforced by the army of General Long- 
street, took the offensive, and leaving his position at Freder- 
icksburg, crossed the Potomac, advanced to Hagerstown, and 
thence up the Cumberland valley to Chambersburg. This 
sudden invasion produced great consternation at the North, 
and the militia of Pennsylvania were called for in large num- 
bers. General Meade was placed in command of the Union 
army, in place of Hooker. At Gettysburg, on the first three 
days of tlie 7th month (July), was fought a decisive battle — 
the most important of the war — ending in the defeat of the 
Confederates, and their retreat across the Potomac. 

-,6 



422 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1864 

After the capture of New Orleans (1862), the flotillas of 
Farragut and Porter ascended the Mississippi, and, co-ope- 
rating with the army of General Grant, laid siege to the strong 
fortifications of Vicksburg, where the Confederate general, 
Pemberton, was in command. The attempt at that time was 
not successful; but, during all the first, six months of 1863, 
unintermitted endeavors to effect its capture were carried on, 
and at last on the 4th day of the 7th month (the day after the 
battle of Gettysburg) the garrison of Vicksburg, nearly ex- 
hausted by starvation, surrendered to the Nationals. Port 
Hudson, farther down the river, the last possession of the 
Confederates on the Mississippi, surrendered to the army of 
General Banks five days after the fall of Vicksburg. 

The army of Rosecrans had remained for six months at Mur- 
freesboro, when, being reinforced by cavalry, an advance was 
made south-eastward toward Chattanooga. General Bragg, 
the Confederate commander, retreated to that place, and gave 
battle to his pursuers at the Chickamauga creek, in the imme- 
diate neighborhood (9th mo. 20th). Rosecrans, although de- 
feated, took possession of Chattanooga. Here General Grant 
assumed command, and being joined by the divisions of 
Hooker and Sherman, the Confederates, after a severe strug- 
gle, were driven from the commanding positions of Lookout 
Mountain and Missionary Ridge. 

During most of the year, Charleston was closely besieged 
by land and naval forces under the command of General 
Gilmore and Admirals Dupont and Dahlgren. Forts Wagner 
and Gregg on Morris island, were taken, and Fort Sumter was 
battered to pieces. The city itself was occasionally bom- 
barded, and, although not captured, blockade running was 
entirely prevented. 

In the early part of 1864, General Grant was made general- 
in-chief of all the armies. General Banks, with the army in 
Louisiana, moved up the Red river toward Shreveport, but he 



1864] GA\4N7'S ADVANCE. 423 

was defeated and driven back to New Orleans. Fort Pillow 
was re- taken by a large force of Confederate cavalry under 
General Forrest. Its capture was marked by signal atrocity, 
as no quarter was given to the garrison, half of whom were 
colored troops: men, women and children were indiscrimi- 
nately massacred. 

The army of the Potomac was placed under command of 
General Meade, although personally superintended by General 
Grant. In the 5th month (May), the final advance was made 
on Richmond. Immediately after crossing the Rapidan, the 
march of the Nationals was disputed by the army of Lee, 
The terrible battle of " The Wilderness" ensued, but although 
Grant's loss was very heavy, he continued on, and a second 
great battle was fought at Spottsylvania Court-house. Lee 
again fell back, and the Nationals advanced to the Chicka- 
hominy. The battle of Cool Arbor followed, resulting in a 
fearful sacrifice of life on the part of the Nationals, who then 
advanced to the James river, and, part of them crossing that 
stream, effected a junction with Butler's army at Bermuda 
Hundred, 6th mo. (June) 15th. The capture of Petersburg by 
assault was attempted, but its intrenchments proved to be so 
strong, that regular siege works were ordered to be constructed. 

While Grant was thus besieging Petersburg, Lee endeavored 
to effect a withdrawal of at least a portion of his antagonists, 
by ordering General Early to make an -invasion north of the 
Potomac. The Union general, Hunter, had made a raid 
up the Shenandoah valley to Lynchburg, and thence moved 
into West Virginia, so that Early found his way nearly unob- 
structed. Martinsburg and Hari)er's Ferry being evacuated 
by the Nationals, Early advanced with confidence into Mary- 
land, but was checked at the battle of the Monocacy. A por- 
tion of his army meanwhile moved toward the Susquehanna, 
and arriving at Chambersburg, threatened the destruction of 
the town unless ^200,000 tribute was paid, to insure its safety. 



424 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1865 

The demand being refused, the town was set on fire, and one- 
half of it laid in ashes. The raiders then hurried back to 
Virginia, and were followed by a large cavalry force under 
General Sheridan. Early was defeated at Winchester, and 
retreating toward Staunton, was followed by Sheridan's cav- 
alry, who, in retaliation for the destruction of Chambersburg, 
wantonly burned large number^ of barns in the Shenandoah 
valley. 

Sherman, with an army of nearly 100,000 men, having left 
Chattanooga, defeated General Hood, and occupied Atlanta, 
9th mo. (September) 4th. Leaving General Thomas to carry 
on the campaign in Tennessee, Sherman prepared to evacuate 
Atlanta; but, before departing on his "march to the sea," 
ordered the city to be set on fire. Two hundred acres of 
ground, covered with buildings, were thus destroyed, a mili- 
tary band playing triumphantly while the fiery desolation was 
at its height ! Sherman then advanced through Georgia to 
Savannah, which place he also captured. The harbor de- 
fences of Mobile had, in the meantime, been taken by the 
fleet of Farragut, so that at the end of 1864, Wilmington 
(North Carolina), and Charleston, were the only seaports of 
consequence in possession of the Confederates. 

Abraham Lincoln was re-elected president, and Andrew 
Johnson, of Tennessee, was chosen vice-president (1864). 
Congress, in response to the message of the president, passed 
the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which prohibited 
slavery forever in the republic. It was the constitutional 
supplement to the Proclamation of Emancipation, and was 
duly ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, 
as required by law. 

In the early part of 1865, the army of Sherman took up its 
march through the Carolinas, advancing first from Savannah 
to Columbia. The Confederate general. Wade Hampton, 
upon leaving Columbia, had given orders that all the cotton 



1865] SHERMAN'S MARCH. 425 

should be taken into the streets and burned. But, a large 
part of the beautiful city itself was laid in ashes. Whether this 
wanton act was to be attributed to the Nationals, or whether 
to the Confederates themselves, is a matter of controversy. 
Charleston, being now flanked by Sherman and invested by 
the fleet, was set on fire by the Confederate garrison, who 
then hurried northward to join the army of Johnston, and to 
oppose Sherman's further advance. Wilmington, likewise, 
after Fort Fisher, its strong defence, had been taken by the 
fleet, was evacuated. Meanwhile, Sherman's army swept on- 
ward into North Carolina, its broad track of thirty miles in 
width being marked by utter desolation. Food for his great 
army, forage for the horses, fresh animals to replace the worn- 
out ones, were all taken from the inhabitants. In the latter 
part of the 3d month (March), 1865, Goldsboro in eastern 
North Carolina was reached, and there Sherman established 
his headquarters. 

In the 2d month, three commissioners from the Confederate 
States, one of whom was Alexander H. Stephens, vice-president 
of the Confederacy, were appointed, to try to negotiate terms 
of peace. President Lincoln, and secretary of state, Seward, 
met the commissioners at Fortress Monroe. The Confed- 
erates, although wishing peace, still held off for a recognition 
of their independent rights, which the president replied 
would not be accorded them. The discussion was amicably 
proceeded with, but, like several other preceding attempts in 
the same direction, it failed to accomplish its purpose. 

In the 3d month, while Sherman was marching in the di- 
rection of Goldsboro, Sheridan with a strong force of cavalry, 
left Winchester, ascended the Shenandoah valley to Staunton, 
and advancing thence toward Richmond, destroyed the rail- 
road communications of the Confederates west and north of 
that city. Lee then essayed to break through Grant's army 
before Petersburg, in order to effect a junction with the army 

36* 



426 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1865 

of Johnston in North Carolina. Failing in his attempt, he at 
once sent word to Richmond that that city must be evacuated. 
Davis and his cabinet, and others who had been actively en- 
gaged in the rebellion, left the city; while General Ewell, 
after ordering the destruction of the cotton and tobacco, which 
were stored in several large warehouses, departed with his 
troops. The conflagration, however, spread widely, so that 
the principal business portion of the city was destroyed. The 
arsenal was also set fire to, and the Confederate iron-clads 
were blown up. On the 3d day of the 4th month (April) 
the Union troops entered the late capital of the Confederacy. 
On the 9th instant, Lee, after further futile endeavors to es- 
cape, surrendered the shattered remnant of his army to Gen- 
eral Grant. Two weeks later, Johnston surrendered to Sher- 
man, and the rebellion came to an end. 

Before the latter event transpired, a terribly tragic event 
occurred at Washington, being the assassination of the presi- 
dent, at a theatre. Secretary Seward was also attacked by 
an accomplice, and narrowly escaped death. The assassin of 
the president, John Wilkes Booth, an actor by profession, 
was pursued and killed, and several of his co-conspirators 
being captured, were tried, convicted and executed. 

Jefferson Davis was taken prisoner near Macon, Georgia, 
while in the act of escaping, disguised in woman's attire. 
He was sent thence to Fortress Monroe, but after a confine- 
ment of a year and a half, was released, without trial. An- 
drew Johnson, the vice-president, assumed the chief magistracy, 
upon the death of President Lincoln. 

No more than a mere outline of the War of the Rebellion 
has been given. There were numerous cavalry raids, hun- 
dreds of battles and skirmishes, and many encounters upon 
the rivers and ocean, of which no mention can here be made. 
Neither has anything been said of the work of the Sanitary 
Commission ; of the employment of colored soldiers in the 



1865] WHAT THE WAR COST. 427 

army ; of the conscription, and the disturbances in Northern 
cities in opposition to it; of the great riot in New York and 
the massacre of negroes ; of the terrible privations and suffer- 
ings of the Union prisoners confined in the warehouses and 
prison-pens of the South, and, in a less degree, of the suffer- 
ings of Confederates at the North, together with a hundred 
other of the dire consequences of the war. A kv<f statistics 
will merely be adduced for the purpose of comparison, that 
we may see whether the whole country would not have been a 
great gainer if it had adopted the plan of compensated eman- 
cipation, and extirpated the evil of slavery at a money price 
far greater even than the thousand million of dollars which it 
was proposed should be paid. 

The whole number of men enrolled in the Northern army 
was about 2,650,000. It is estimated that 300,000 men of each 
army perished in battle, or by disease in camps and hospitals ; 
and that the number crippled, or permanently disabled by 
disease, amounted altogether to 400,000. This would make a 
total of 1,000,000 men as the actual loss to the country. 

The money cost of the war, to both sides, is estimated at six 
thousand million dollars (^6,000,000,000). In order to meet 
the yearly interest on the National Debt, which was increased 
from 60 millions in i860, to 2600 millions in 1865, the 
people were taxed to an extent to which the taxation by the 
British crown, in the preceding century, bore no comparison. 
Stamps were required on deeds, leases, receipts, checks and 
many other docuriients, beside on a great variety of manufac- 
tured goods. A moiety of the debt incurred for, and the loss 
sustained by, the war, would have paid for all the slaves; 
would have provided all the illiterate whites and blacks of the 
South with the requisite facilities for obtaining an education ; 
would have built half-a-dozen railways from tlie Atlantic to 
the Pacific, a. d would have paid for tlie completion of as many 
water-ways connecting the streams of the Mississippi valley 



428 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1865 

with those of the Atlantic slope and the Great Lakes. In 
brief, liad wise and peaceful counsels prevailed, we might have 
been a really united people, and thus the fearful record of loss 
in men and in money, in social and political morality, wouUl 
not be now what we know too well that it is. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

1865— 1876. 



RECONSTRUCTION. IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 

ALASKA. 

The administration of Andrew Johnson was not a tranquil 
one. Holding views as to tlie policy to be pursued in the 
re-organization of the late rebellious states, different from 
those of the majority in Congress, many of the measures 
passed by that body received his veto. The president ap- 
pointed provisional governors for seven of the Southern states, 
and the same year (1865) conventions in five of them ratified 
the constitutional amendment as to slavery, formed constitu- 
tions for their respective states, and ordered the election of 
representatives to Congress. These elections mostly resulted 
in returning to office men who had taken a leading part in the 
rebellion. Congress refused, under the powers granted it to 
"judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own 
members," to admit them. It judged that they were not quali- 
fied to take their seats as legislators, by reason of the animosity 
which they had exhibited to the general government. 

Upon the appointment of a committee of fifteen, known as 
the "Reconstruction Committee," authorized to inquire into 
the condition of the states lately in rebellion, and whether 
any of such were entitled to representation in Congress, the 
president openly expressed his opposition. He believed that 

429 



430 HISTORY OF I'HE UNITED STATES. [1868 

the representatives should be aeimitted without question. 
Later in the year 1866, when the president made a journey to 
Chicago to be present at some public ceremonies, he lost no 
opportunity for declaring his opinions upon the subject of 
reconstruction, and arraigned members of Congress by name 
for the part they had taken in the measures which had been 
adopted. All the members of his cabinet, except Stanton, 
the secretary of war, resigned. 

In the 2d month (February), 1868, the president ordered 
Secretary Stanton also to surrender his office, and directed Ad- 
jutant-General Lorenzo Thomas to take his place. Stanton 
refused to comply. On the following day, the House of 
Representatives, believing the action of the president to be in 
violation of the law, resolved, by a large majority, "that 
Andrew Johnson, president of the United States, be impeached 
of high crimes and misdemeanors." Accordingly, articles of 
impeachment were presented to the House. They charged 
the president with making inflammatory and odious speeches 
during his journey from Washington to Chicago; with de- 
claring that Congress was not a constitutional body; and with 
endeavoring to prevent the execution of laws which it had 
passed. 

The Senate, according to the provisions of the constitution, 
was organized as a jury for the trial of the president, and 
Chief-Justice Chase presided. The president's counsel asked 
for delay, and ten days were granted. The examination of 
witnesses was then proceeded with, and the arguments of 
counsel followed. The trial lasted more than two months, 
closing with a vote of 35 in favor of impeachment, and 19 for 
acquittal. As the vote lacked i of the requisite majority of 
two-thirds, the president was acquitted. 

Soon after the close of the impeachment trial, a 14th amend- 
ment to the constitution having passed Congress, was ratified 
by a sufficient number of the states, and became a law. Seven 



iS67] RECONSTRUCTION. 431 

of the recently re-organized states also ratified it, and, Con- 
gress having approved of their respective state constitutions, 
their senators and representatives were admitted into the Na- 
tional Legislature. The Fourteenth Amendment provides 
that " No state shall make or enforce any law which shall 
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United 
States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty 
or property, without due process of law ; nor deny to any 
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ' ' 
This measure was especially intended to secure the freed men 
in their rights as citizens. It declares " that representation 
shall be apportioned among the several states according to 
their respective numbers, counting the ivhole mimbe7' of pejsons 
in eacli state." It gave to Congress the power to remove the 
political disabilities of any who were lately in rebellion, and 
also affirmed the validity of the National Debt, while it de- 
clared the debt incurred by the South to be void and illegal. 
The territory of Alaska, formerly known as Russian 
America, containing an area of about 400,000 square miles, 
was purchased from the Russian government in 1867, for the 
sum of $7,200,000. The climate of the country, except in the 
southern part, is too rigorous to admit of very successful agri- 
culture, but the rock formations are believed to be rich in 
mineral wealth, while the seal fisheries are of considerable 
value. It cannot be said, however, that our acquisition of the 
territory of Alaska has proved a beneficial change to the few 
thousand Indians who comprise the population of that country. 

Tn a report submitted to Congress (1872) upon " Fatal obstacles to 
the Christian civilization of the Indians," the Medical Director of 
Alaska, at Sitka, testifies that " a greater mistake could not have 
been made than stationing troops in their midst. * * Whiskey 
his been sold in the streets by government officials at public auc- 
tions, and exam])les of drunkenness are set before them almost 
daily, so that in fact the principal teaching they at present are re- 
ceiving is that drunkenness and debauchery are held by us, not as 



432 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1871 

criminal and unbecoming a Christian people, but as indications of 
our advanced and superior civilization. These Indians are a civil 
and well-behaved people ; they do not want bayonets to keep them 
in subjection, but they do want honest, faithful, and Christian 
workers among them ; those that wiU care for them, teach and in- 
struct them in useful arts, and that they are responsible beings." 

Another one witnesses as follows : " The accounts I have re- 
ceived from time to time, of the conduct of the soldiers in the 
Indian camps of the coast of Alaska, are truly shocking. If the 
United States government did but know half, I am sure they would 
shrink from being identified with such abominations, and the cause 
of so much misery." 

Nebraska was admitted into the Union, the 37th state, in 
1867. In the same year there was passed a general Bankrupt 
Law, which was amended in 1874, and is still in force. 

GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION. THE FREEDMEN. EDUCATION. 

The election of 1868 resulted in the choice of General 
Ulysses S. Grant, of Illinois, for president, and Schuyler 
Colfax, of Indiana, for vice-president. In 1872, Grant was 
re-elected president, while Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, 
was chosen to the second office. During the first years of 
Grant's administration, political affairs in the South did not 
exhibit the improvement which, by many, had been antici- 
pated. Unfortunately, many of those from the North, who, 
immediately after the war, were placed in office at the South, 
were men quite unfit for those responsible positions, where 
integrity and impartiality were especially called for. On the 
other hand, there were numerous cases of harsh treatment 
both to persons from the North and to the recently enfran- 
chised bondsmen. Murders by masked men of a secret order, 
called Ku-Klux, were of frequent occurrence in some quarters. 

In 1871 there occurred a great fire at Chicago. The loss 
of property was estimated at 200 million dollars; 18,000 
houses were burned ; 200 persons perished, and many thou- 



iSjoj CHICAGO FIRE. 433 

sinds were left homeless. Much sympathy for the sufferers 
by the dreadful calamity, was manifested throughout this 
country and in Great Britain. About the same time, fires 
were prevalent in the forest regions of Minnesota, Michigan, 
Wisconsin and other states. A number of villages were 
burnt to the ground, numerous lives were lost, and the suf- 
fering and pecuniary distress were great. Contributions for 
their relief also, were forwarded from all parts of the land. 

The terrible distress caused by the failure of the potato crop in 
Ireland, in 1848, moved the American people, the very slaves 
even, to deep sympathy. Substantial assurances of the reality of 
this feeling were sent over in the shape of shiploads of food. Upon 
the occasion of the devastating inundations in France, in 1856, the 
English people were deeply stirred by the harrowing recitals of 
suffering and loss, and sent generous offerings to the afflicted 
people. 

Says Biirritt, in commenting upon the moral influence of national 
calaviificT : "The earthquake that engulphed Lisbon thrilled the 
civilized world with a fellow-feeling in the great catastrojjhe, and, 
like Moses' rod at Horeb, smote the rock-ribbed boundaries of 
jealous nations and set them running with rivulets of benevolence 
toward the suffering city." 

A general Amnesty Bill, in favor of those who had borne 
an active part in the rebellion, was passed by Congress, in 
1872. Colorado was admitted into the Union in 1875. I" 
the latter part of the same year Vice-President Wilson died. 



In the year 1870, Congress passed the 15th Amendment to 
the constitution. It enacts that (Section 1) "The right of 
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any state, on account of 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude." (Section 2) 
"The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate 
legislation, the provisions of this article." All citizens of 
T 37 



434 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1871 

the United States, except untaxed Indians, were thence ad- 
mitted to the franchise. To resume : By the 13th Amend- 
ment, slavery had been constitutionally abolished ; by the 
14th Amendment, the freedmen were declared to be citizens; 
by the 15th, they were invested with the right of suffrage. To 
carry out the second section of the 15th Amendment, Con- 
gress passed the so-called "Enforcement Act." In several 
of the reconstructed states, and especially in South Carolina 
and Louisiana, grave disturbances arose, which the president 
believed himself called upon to quell by applying the power 
provided for in said act. 

With the object of relieving the immediate necessities of 
those who were either escaping or had escaped from slavery, 
and for the help of needy white refugees from the South, 
the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands — 
usually styled the " Freedmen's Bureau" — had been estab- 
lished by act of Congress a few months prior to the close 
of the war. It continued in operation until 1871. General 
Howard was appointed commissioner. An organized system 
of relief went into operation, which administered not only 
the aid afforded by government, but also the large contri- 
butions forwarded by societies and individuals. Transporta- 
tion was afforded to many thousand freedmen and refugees, 
hospitals and dispensaries were established and provisions sup- 
plied. Over 2000 freedmen's schools were also opened. The 
most prominent of these was the Howard University, near 
Washington. 

But the aid afforded to the freedmen, and especially the 
opening of schools, was not left entirely to the Freedmen's 
Bureau. Ignorant slaves had suddenly been made citizens, 
invested with the right to vote, and, obviously, there was a 
responsibility which must be at once met in making provi- 
sion for their intellectual and moral advancement. By most 
of the religious denominations at the North, aid was extended 



1871] PEABODY FUND. 435 

to begin the work. The gift of two million dollars bestowed 
by George Peabody for the specific purpose of promoting 
education in the Southern states, proved a very efficient 
help. 

Only the income of the Peabody fund — amounting to 
$120,000 per annum — is annually expended. Not a single 
state of the South possessed a modern system of public schools 
at the time this trust was created ; but now, no state is with- 
out such a system. This favorable result has been owing in a 
considerable measure to the timely aid extended by the 
trustees of the fund. In order to receive such aid, it is a re- 
quirement that the school assisted shall have at least 100 
pupils, with one teacher for every 50 scholars; that it shall be 
properly graded ; and that it shall be continued during ten 
months of the year, with an average attendance of 85 in the 
hundred. These provisions have operated to keep the schools 
well attended. The district in which any aided school is 
situated, is expected to contribute at least twice the amount 
received from the Peabody fund, and usually much more than 
twice. The money is available for the schools of either white 
or colored pupils who shall have fulfilled the conditions. 

Government land grants in behalf of public education were 
made as far back as 1785. From that time to the present, 
the extent of grants for such purpose has amounted to 140 
million acres. Since 1862, when Congress passed a law dis- 
tributing the proceeds of the sale of five million acres among 
the tlifferent states, more attention has been paid to the estab- 
lishment of normal institutes, agricultural colleges, and schools 
for instruction in the useful arts. The money thus received 
by the states from the general government, has been largely 
increased by grants from the states themselves, from towns, 
and from private individuals. 

But there still remains a vast amount of illiteracy unpro- 
vided for, especially at the South. Upon the abolishment of 



436 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1868 

the Freedmen's Bureau in 1871, it was estimated that not more 
than one freedman's child in six was being provided with 
school education. This is a sad as well as an alarming state- 
ment : that five-sixths of the colored race on our soil should be 
allowed to grow up without the knowledge of how to read and 
write ! To provide against so undesirable a contingency, there 
is now pending in Congress an " Educational Fund Bill." It 
proposes to set apart for a perpetual Education Fund, the net 
proceeds of so much of the public lands as are not taken up 
under the homestead or soldiers' bounty acts. The money, 
it is proposed, shall be distributed among all the states and 
territories, for the purposes of free education, irrespective of 
race or color ; but for the first ten years after the passage of 
the act, the money to be distributed according to the propor- 
tion of illiteracy. That is to say, the most money to be ap- 
plied for the present where the need is most urgent, namely, 
in the Southern states. 



THE NEW INDIAN POLICY. 

The consideration of a better method of dealing with the 
Indians than that which had hitherto prevailed, was early 
brought to the attention of President Grant. In an official 
report at that time, it was stated, that "while it cannot be 
denied that the United States government, in the general 
terms and temper of its legislation, has evinced a desire to 
deal justly with the Indians, it must be admitted that the 
actual treatment they have received has been unjust and 
iniquitous beyond the power of words to express." 

Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, an earnest and tried friend of the 
red men, remarks : " I have travelled on foot and in tlie saddle, over 
every square mile of my diocese. I know every Indian settlement 
in it. Some of the Indians will drink and some of them will steal, 
and they are of our race, for they have the same vices ; but in every 



1869] THE NEW INDIAN POLICY. 



437 



difficulty that has occurred in these twelve years of my residence, 
between the Indians and the government, the government has always 
been wrong and the Indians have always been right." 

A prominent military ofificer, General Harney, stated that "he 
never knew an Indian chief to break his word, and in no instance 
in which a war broke out with the tribes, that the tribes were not in 
the right." 

Furthermore, as regards the matter of expense, it appears by 
governmental statistics, that since the year 1820 the policy of extin- 
guishment had cost the government for each Indian killed, the lives 
of twenty white men and one million dollars ! 

In the first annual message of President Grant to Congress 
(1869), he announced the inauguration of what is now gener- 
ally known as the "Quaker Policy" of Indian treatment, in 
these words ; 

"I have attempted a new policy toward these wards of the 
nation (they cannot be regarded in any other light than as 
wards), with fair results so far as tried, and which I hope will 
be attended ultimately with great success. The Society of 
Friends is well known as having succeeded in living in peace 
with the Indians in the early settlement of Pennsylvania, 
while their white neighbors of other sects, in other sections, 
were constantly embroiled. They were also known for their 
opposition to all strife, violence and war. * * These con- 
siderations induced me to give the management of a io.^^ reser- 
vations of the Indians to tliem, and to throw the burden of 
the selection of agents upon the society itself." But other 
religious societies, beside the Friends, were properly included 
in this arrangement. 

The president's reasons for favoring this important change 
were, in the first place, to avoid the horrors as well as the ex- 
pense of a border warfare. The government being already 
deeply in debt, the president perceived the absolute necessity 
of inaugurating measures of retrenchment. Likewise, the 
great Pacific railroad, the construction of which had just been 

37* 



438 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1869 

completed, would be seriously jeopardized by a general Indian 
outbreak. ; while the protection of so long a line of railway 
from the onsets of hostile Indians, would be only possible at 
great expense, and would also necessitate a large increase of 
the army. " Finally, it was doubtless hoped that a just and 
humane treatment of the Indians in the future, would tend in 
some degree to obliterate the odium which, in the eyes of the 
Christian world, justly attaches to our government, because 
of the violence and heartlessness and bloodshed which have 
too often characterized its administration of Indian affairs." 

The disgraceful circumstances connected with tlie Sioux war of 
1862, and the Cheyenne war of 1865, most likely exercised an influ- 
ence in bringing about the new policy. The origin of the Chey- 
enne war was as follows : About five hundred Indians of that body, 
who, though charged with being offenders, protested that they did 
not wish to fight, were gathered under the protection of their agent, 
near Fort Lamed. In the gray of the morning they were attacked 
by a body of Colorado volunteers, and the awful " Chivington mas- 
sacre" resulted. An official report says ; " It was a massacre that 
scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity. Fleeing 
women, holding up their hands and praying for mercy, were brutally 
shot down ; infants were killed and scalped in derision ; men were 
tortured and mutilated in a manner that would put to shame the 
savage ingenuity of Africa. No one will be astonished that a war 
ensued which cost the government 30 million dollars, and carried 
conflagration and death to the border settlements." 

In organizing the new policy, the management of the In- 
dians (who had been placed under the control of the Depart- 
ment of the Interior as early as 1849), ^^^^ in part intrusted 
to a Board of Indian Commissioners composed of men of 
recognized integrity and ability, selected by the president. 
For the trial of the experiment, the entire territory from the 
state of Missouri to the Rocky mountains, and from the Red 
river of Texas to the line of the British provinces, was set 
apart, and divided into six districts or superintendencies. 



i874] THE NEW INDIAN POLICY. 435, 

Subsequently, agencies were also established for the Indians 
west of the Rocky mountains. 

The following are the names and locations of the principal 
tribes which were intrusted to the care of thirteen of the 
religious denominations: 

Congregational. — Arickarees, Mandans, and Gros Ventres, 
of Dacotah ; Chippewas, of Minnesota; Menomonees and 
Oneidas, of Wisconsin. 

Methodist. — Blackfeet and Crows, of Montana ; western 
Shoshones, of Idaho ; also, in part, the Pacific coast Indians. 

Episcopalian. — Sioux or Dacotahs, and the northern Chey- 
ennes and Arapahoes, of Dacotah ; and the eastern Shoshones, 
of Wyoming Territory. 

Roman Catholic. — Flatheads of Montana, and a number of 
small tribes in Oregon, Washington Territory, and Dacotah. 

Presbyterian. — Apaches and Navajoes, of New Mexico ; the 
Uintahs, of Utah ; Nez Perces, of Idaho. 

Dutch Reformed. — Papagos, Pimas and Apaches, of the Gila 
and Colorado rivers, of Arizona. 

Hicksite Friends. — Pawnees and Winnebagoes, lowas, Otoes 
and Omahas, of Nebraska. 

Orthodox Friends. — Pottawatomies, of Kansas ; southern 
Cheyennes and Arapahoes, Kiowas and Comanches, Osages 
and Delawares, of the Indian Territory. There are about 25 
tribes under the care of Friends, in the " Central Superinten- 
dency." 

Baptist. — The Utes of Nevada and northern Arizona. 

The Mobilian tribes in the Indian Territory, to wit, the 
Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles, were 
considered sufficiently civilized to have agents of their own ; but 
in 1874 these agencies were consolidated into one, the Union, 
and placed under care of the Baptists. 

The Free- Will Baptists, United Presbyterians, Christian 
Union and Unitarians, also have agencies, but smaller than 



440 HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. [1876 

the above. The Moravians have missions in Kansas and the 
Indian Territory, but, as yet, no agency. 

The method of organization adopted by the Friends was as 
follows. Two members from each of their several Yearly 
Meeting districts were appointed, to constitute an "Associated 
Executive Committee on Indian Affairs." Tliis committee 
nominated one superintendent, and also agents for the different 
tribes under their charge; all of whom were accepted by the 
president and confirmed by the senate. The committee was 
divided into four standing sub-committees, namely, on Instruc- 
tion ; the Religious Interests of the Indians ; Industrial Pur- 
suits; and the Washington committee, — the duty of conferring 
directly with the United States authorities devolving on the 
latter. Each agent was (and is) required to make a quarterly 
financial report to transmit to Washington, as well as an an- 
nual report to the superintendent, of the condition of the 
Indians in his charge. 

The agents of the various religious societies who entered 
upon the beneficent work of civilizing and christianizing the 
Indians, found themselves speedily confronted by many dis- 
heartening influences. They found there vvas not so much 
difificulty experienced in restraining turbulent Indians, as there 
was in keeping white outlaws away from the reservations, — 
the greedy speculators, horse thieves and whiskey-dealers. But, 
notwithstanding the continuous opposition of those whose 
business it had been to thrive off the Indians, and in spite 
of the predictions of failure in attempting a policy of peace 
with "savages," the religious bodies have pressed forward in 
the work which was given into their hands, and now (1876), 
after a seven years' trial, have proved it to be as much of a suc- 
cess as could have been reasonably looked for. The Indians, 
for the most part, have been kept on the reservations allotted 
them ; many of tliem have tilled the soil and followed the 
employments of tlie white man ; they have been brought in a 



1S76] THE NEW INDIAN POLICY. 441 

degree under the benign influences of the Christian religion, 
while many schools have been organized where instruction 
has been imparted to the children. 

Under the previous system of Indian management, the Indians 
had been systematically defrauded out of large quantities of the 
flour, beef, etc., due to them under government treaties. A notable 
illustration of the way in which the red men were thus robbed by 
the whites, is that afforded in the case of the Sioux. For the five 
months previous to the establishment of the reformed agency 
(Episcopalian), the average weight of the cattle furnished to the In- 
dians was certified to be over 1500 pounds : the method being to 
weigh a few of the heaviest cattle and to assume that the remainder 
of the herd were of the same weight. But under honest agents who 
succeeded, the average weight for the next three months was found 
to be but a little over 1000 pounds ; thus showing that formerly 
the government had paid for one-third more pounds than the Sioux 
had really received. 

In restraining refractory Indians as well as unprincipled 
white men, the peace principles advocated by the Friends have 
been put to a severe test. They cannot make use of deadly 
weapons themselves, and they feel a hesitancy in calling upon 
the military in cases which may issue in bloodshed ; while 
they as firmly believe that if the government was strictly just 
toward the Indians as well as prompt in its manifestation, there 
would be no excuse whatever for the use of such weapons. 
As a practical measure which may overcome the difficulty, 
they favor the establishment of a United States court in the 
Indian Territory, so that the civil force, namely, the United 
States marshal and his assistants, may be made use of, in- 
stead of recourse being had to the military. The president, 
secretary of the Interior and many members of Congress, 
warmly approve of this plan, and it is to be hoped that, the 
Indians consenting, it may be carried into effect. 

Recently, a small band of MoDOCS, from south-western 
Oregon, was placed upon the Quapaw reservation in the In- 



442 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1876 

dian Territory. In 1852, eighteen men of this tribe, while 
under a flag of truce, had been murdered by a Captain Wright 
and his company of soldiers. A difficulty again arose with 
the tribe in 1S73, ^"^^ troops were sent against them. Under 
the leadership of a warrior named Captain Jack (whose father 
was one of those murdered by Wright's company), they 
s-trongly entrenched themselves among what are known as the 
" lava beds." A truce was agreed upon, and General Canby 
and three other commissioners visited them, hoping to arrange 
a settlement. Captain Jack first demanded the return of some 
mules which had been stolen, and also that the soldiers them- 
selve should be removed back to where they were when the 
truce was agreed upon. The Modocs were strenuous on 
these points, which being refused, a signal was given, and 
General Canby- and one of the other commissioners were 
killed. Captain Jack was captured, and executed without a 
trial, and his band, as stated above, were removed to the In- 
dian Territory. The report of the Friends for 1875 ^-lys of 
them : " The Modocs have been total abstainers from alco- 
holic drinks since they have been on this reservation; their 
children are in school, making good progress; they have land 
assigned to them by government, and are already fencing and 
cultivating it." 

Upon several occasions, strenuous efforts have been made 
to transfer the control of the Indians from the Department of 
the Interior to the War Department. Especially was this the 
case, during the congressional session of 1869-70. Very early 
in the latter year, however, it happened that an attack was 
made by United States troops upon the camp of the Piegan 
tribe of the Blackfeet Indians. There were nearly 250 natives 
in the camp, many of them suffering severely from the ravages 
of the smallpox. Nevertheless, four-fifths of them were killed ; 
ninety of whom were women, and about fifty, children, under 
twelve years of age. The news of this massacre effectually 



i84S] THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION. 443 

defeated the proposition to transfer these wards of the nation 
to the tender mercies of the military. 

The who'e number of Indians in the United States is esti- 
mated to be 300,000; of whom 100,000 are classed as civil- 
ized; 125,000 partially civilized ; and 75^000 uncivilized or 
barbarous. 

THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION. 

Probably the greatest drawback to the happiness of our 
people, is to be found in the general use of intoxicating 
liquors. Half-a-century ago the public first became thoroughly 
aroused to the enormity of the evil, and a great effort was 
made to bring it under control. 

It was in 1826, at a time of much popular enthusiasm upon 
the subject, that the American Temperance Society was formed 
at Boston. In the course of five years, as many as 7000 tem- 
perance associations were in operation, comprising a million 
and a quarter of members. But in the meantime, beer and 
cider, in place of rum, became popular drinks, and very many 
of those who had apparently reformed, gave way. In 1840, 
the " Washingtonian" temperance movement was started at 
Baltimore, and enthusiasm again ran high ; the excitement 
upon the subject being increased by the visit of Father Mat- 
thew, a Romanist priest, who was an earnest advocate of total 
abstinence. The failure of the Washingtonian plan appears to 
have been owing to a too-exclusive reliance on man's strength, 
and a consequent ignoring of the aid of the Almighty Arm. 

Meanwhile, the subject of the liquor traffic was made a 
political question in several of the states. Licenses to sell 
were refiised in many of the counties and towns of Massa- 
chusetts, New York and Connecticut. The effects of the 
partial proliibition in Massachusetts, were thus stated in 
1845 • " From more than 100 towns the traffic is entirely re- 
moved, and a reduction is already visible in the public taxa- 



444 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1851 

tion. In one town, with a population of 7000, there were, 
four years since, 469 paupers ; ' no license' has reduced them 
to II." In Potter county, Pennsylvania, where the judge re- 
fused to grant any license, the report stated that, " The 
prison has become tenantless ; there is not a solitary pauper 
in the county ; the business in the criminal court has ceased, 
and taxes have been reduced one-half." 

A more recent instance of the excellent effect of a thorough pro- 
hil)itory law, is that afforded in the case of Vineland, New Jersey. 
Out of a population of 10,000, the overseer of the poor reported 
that, for the space of six months, no settler or citizen had received 
relief. During an entire year there was but a single indictment, and 
that for a trifling case of assault. Tiie fires are so infrequent that 
there ajjpears to be no need of a fire department. The police ex- 
penses amount to but $75 per year. By way of contrast to this ex- 
hibit, the constable of the same place states, that in the town of 
New England from which he came, and which had scarcely as large 
a population as Vineland, there were maintained 40 liquor shops. 
To preserve order there was required a police judge, two marshals 
and ten watchmen and policemen. There were four fire companies 
of forty men each, while the fires, which were mostly incendiary, 
averaged one every two weeks. Numerous paupers also had to be 
supported. 

Owing to the fiicility with which liquors could usually be 
smuggled into a 'no license' town or county, the prohibitory 
laws in New England were but partially successful. But in 
1846, there was enacted by the legislature of Maine, the first 
state prohibitory law. Yet this law lacked practical force, 
because, wiiile the liquor-dealer was subject to fines for the 
offence of selling, the liquor itself remained untouched. The 
large profits from his business wouM enable him to pay the 
fine and go on selling as before. However, a majority of tem- 
perance men who favored a more stringent enactment, having 
been elected to the legislature, that body in 1851, by a vote 
of two to one, passed the act known as the '• Maine Liquor 



i873] THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION. 445 

Law." This law conferred upon the officers summary power 
to destroy the liquor, — the liquor itself being received in evi- 
dence against the dealer, the same as are the implements of the 
gambler or of the coiner of counterfeit money. Neal Dow, 
mayor of Portland, was actively instrumental in procuring the 
passage of this law and also in maintaining its observance. 

Before 1856, the six New England states and six other states, 
enacted prohibitory laws; but in none of them has the law 
continued in force except in the state of Maine. There, the 
palpable results of the prohibition law in lessening pauperism 
and crime, have produced a strong and settled public senti- 
ment in its favor, which is not likely to be set at naught unless 
it be through the subtle machinations of the liquor-dealers. 

Notwithstanding the ill-success of the prohibitory move- 
ment in most of the states, the opposition to the liquor traffic 
did not cease, but was brought to operate in a different man- 
ner. Seeing that to the evil agency of rum are directly owing 
the greater part of the crimes which are committed ; the 
vagrancy and pauperism which prevail; the cost of providing 
officers of the law, and maintaining penitentiaries and Other 
institutions made necessary thereby, it became a question 
whether those who took' part in the traffic were not equally 
amenable with tlie drunkard for the wretched consequences 
of his acts. Hence arose the princi])le of the Civil Damage 
laws, which of late years have been enacted in several of the 
states. 

The Civil Damage act, of Ohio, gives the right to any one who 
shall be injured in consequence of the intoxication, habitual or other- 
wise, of any person, to bring an action for all damages sustained, as 
well against the ]Derson who shall have sold the liquor which pro- 
duced the intoxication, as against the owner or tenant of the build- 
ing in which said liquor was sold. 

The Indiana Temjierance law of 1873 jirovides that a petition for 
a permit to sell sj^irituous liquors must be signed by a majority of 
legal vo'ers in the ward or township; that the applicant must give 



446 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1874 

a bond, with two other persons as sureties, making tliemselves sev- 
erally liable for damages suffered by reason of the sale of liquor ; 
that it shall be unlawful for any one to get intoxicated (a penalty of 
five dollars being charged for the offence) ; that any one injured in 
person, property, or means of support by any intoxicated person, or 
by reason of such intoxication, shall have a right of action for 
damages against the person who sold the liquor, and against the 
landlord of the premises. 

Ill the winter of 1873 and '74, a Women's Temperance 
movement began in Ohio, and soon spread to Indiana and 
others of the western states, as well as the eastern cities. 
"Prayer, persuasion and personal influence," were declared 
to be the watchwords. Whole counties in Ohio were swept 
free of the saloons. In the city of Brooklyn, many of the 
Ijquor-dealers gave up the demoralizing business and united 
with the friends of temperance in endeavors to put down the 
traffic. " Workingmen's Coffee- Houses" and " Holly Tree 
Inns" have been started in many of the cities, to serve the 
purpose of substitutes for the taverns which have been re- 
moved. At those places, non-intoxicating beverages, such as 
coffee and milk, can be had of excellent quality, at less than 
the price of ardent spirits. In England, as at Manchester and 
Liverpool, cocoa has been largely employed as a substitute for 
beer and ardent spirits. 

During the session of 1874, the Senate of the United States 
passed a bill providing for a National Commission to inquire 
into the results of the liquor traffic ; but the House of Repre- 
sentatives has not, as yet, concurred therein. The general 
government, in permitting the manufacture of intoxicating 
liquors simply upon the payment of a tax, becomes in a meas- 
ure a party to the monstrous evil. Again, the dealers feel 
that, having settled the tax, they ought not to be hindered in 
dispensing their vile manufactures. But, compare tlie revenue 
received by the government, with the cost to the country. 



1 874] THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION. 447 

The amount of receipts of internal revenue arising from the 
tax on spirituous and fermented liquors, was, in 1874, 58 
million dollars. This is the annual gain. 

There are 29,000 liquor distilleries and 140,000 saloons in 
the land, employing over half-a-million men in this v^oxV. so de- 
structive to body and soul. Were these distilleries and saloons 
ranged in a single line, side by side, it would probably take a 
man the space of forty days, walking fifteen miles per day, to 
get beyond the last of those doors of death ! 

About 100, oco persons, at an expense of 100 million dol- 
lars, are annually imprisoned for crime, a large part of which 
is directly due to the use of strong drink. Briefly stated : the 
annual waste in grain, fruit, etc., which are turned into intoxi- 
cating liquors; in the cost of pauperism and crime, produced 
by intemperance ; in the loss of productive industry ; in the 
loss of wages or value of time of those employed in the busi- 
ness; in the support of insane, idiots and disabled, are to- 
gether estimated at 1500 million dollars. In other words, 
for every dollar which the government receives, the country 
loses over 250. 



Consider the loss in a single state. In Virginia, where the yearly 
taxation of property for state purposes amounts to about 3^ mil- 
lion dollars, it is estimated that the value of intoxicating liquors 
consumed amounts to as much as 12 million dollars per annum : 
equal to the value of the whole wheat crop of the state (8,000,000 
bushels) for the year 1870 ! 

It seems, as yet, to be very imperfectly understood, that the dis- 
tilled product of grain and fruit, is a veritable poison when taken 
into the human system. How greatly the food resources of the 
nation are worse than wasted by thus changing them into a subtle 
intoxicant, is pointedly set forth in the following brief testimony of 
a leading American physican. Dr. Willard Parker : 

"Alcohol is a/i7..f(?« when introduced into a healthy system ; it is a 
foreign substance, and, of itself, incapable of making any repair, 
ultimately inducing diseases of the system as surely as malaria or 



448 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1872 

any other poison. Our life insurance companies have settled this 
point. It is now established that a young man who is sober at 
twenty and continues so, has an average chance of life of 64 years 
and 2 months ; but the drinker at twenty, if he continues to drink 
alcoholic liquors, has an average of life of 354 years." A difference, 
in favor of temperance, of 28i years. 

But when we turn to contemplate the moral loss which the 
traffic entails, it must be confessed to be altogether beyond 
computation. Whoever has heard the sad details in the case 
of but a single victim of intemperance, must admit that no 
adequate conception can be formed of the sum total of wretch- 
edness and crime which mark the career of the 60,000 or more 
in this land alone, who yearly go down to the drunkard's 
grave. 

ARBITRATION AND PEACE. 

One of the most cheering events in the history of our 
country, was the peaceful settlement of the Alabama question 
by arbitration. Upon the conclusion of the Civil War, the 
American government demanded of England re-imbursement 
for the damages inflicted upon its shipping by the Alabama 
and other Confederate cruisers which had been fitted out in 
English ports. For six years this claim was resisted, and, at 
times, such was the feeling of irritation produced by the dis- 
cussion, that it appeared as though a war would certainly 
follow. But finally, in 1871, representatives of the two powers 
met at Washington to arrange a treaty. One of the provisions 
of this treaty was, that a Court of Arbitration should be ap- 
pointed, which should convene at Geneva, in Switzerland, 
and determine the amount of damages properly due to this 
country. 

Accordingly, the arbitrators met (1872) at the place ap- 
pointed, and chose Count Sclopis, of Italy, their presiding 
officer. Three principles of law formed the basis of the 



1872] ARBITRATION AND PEACE. 449 

Treaty of Washington : ist. That a neutral government is 
bound to use due diligence to prevent the fitting out, within 
its jurisdiction, of armed vessels intended to injure a friendly 
nation ; 2d. That a neutral government must not allow its 
ports to be used as a basis of naval operations; and 3d. 
That a neutral government is responsible for the violation of 
these provisions. Much of the time of the sessions was taken 
up in the consideration of "indirect damages" claimed by 
thj United States. These, however, being finally rejected, 
the arbitrators awarded to the United States the sum of 
^15,500,000 in full for all claims. England, greatly to her 
honor, acquiesced in the award without demur. 

As the consideration of the methods by which wars may be 
averted, forms one of the most important topics which can 
engage the attention of the student of history, it will be worth 
our while to make inquiry as to what measures have been pro- 
]insed, or efforts put forth, in this and in other countries, for 
the preservation of international peace. 

There are at least four ways open to nations for establishing 
their rights, witliout having recourse to the sword. 

I. Negotiation. — The settlement of all causes of disagree- 
ment by the parties themselves. 

II. Arbitration. — When the parties become too much 
excited by passion to reason, they may agree to choose an 
umpire. 

III. Mediation. — When rulers become impressed with the 
belief that they must solve the matters in dispute by force of 
arras, the friendly mediation of a third power may be offered. 

IV. A Congress of Nations. — For many reasons, this 
is by far the preferable plan. In the matter of economy, for 
instance, it would save the enormous yearly outlay for military 
preparations in times of peace, as well as the extra expendi- 
tures which are incurred wlienever a disagreement, likely to 
culminate in war, arises. 

38* 



450 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1872 

In the history of our own country, when direct Negotiation 
has failed, wars have been frequently averted by Mediation 
and Arbitration. The following are instances: 

1822. The question of restitution for certain damages in- 
flicted by Great Britain during the war of 181 2, was referred 
for arbitration to the emperor of Russia. 

1827. The north-eastern Boundary Dispute between this 
country and Great Britain, was referred to the king of the 
Netherlands. His decision not being satisfactory, it was sub- 
sequently settled by the Ashburton Treaty. 

1838. Matters in controversy with Mexico, were referred 
to the king of Prussia. 

1853. All outstanding claims which had arisen between 
Great Britain and the United States, were referred to two 
commissioners, who chose an umpire to decide the case. 

1858. Claims against Chili for the seizure of private prop- 
erty, were referred for settlement to the king of the Belgians. 

i860. Claims against New Grenada, and also against Costa 
Rica, were referred to commissions mutually appointed. 

1863. Two claims against Peru were referred, one of them 
to the king of the Belgians, the other to a commission. 

1864. A serious dispute with Great Britain concerning 
property about Puget Sound, was referred to a commission. 

1871. Claims for damages arising out of the troubles in 
Cuba, were referred to a commission at Washington, who 
chose the Austrian ambassador to be umpire. 

The excellent moral effect of the Geneva Arbitration of 
1872, has been evidenced in the increasing number of inter- 
national disputes which have been similarly adjusted. Of 
these may be instanced the four following, as having occurred 
within the last two years. 

a. A dispute between the Swiss and Italian governments, 
respecting a portion of their frontier, was referred to two ar- 
bitrators, by whom an umpire was chosen. 



1872] ARBITRATION AND PEACE. 451 

b. Between China and Japan a trouble arose, growing out 
of the murder of some Japanese on the island of Formosa. 
The demand for compensation was not acceded to ; an angry 
controversy ensued ; and preparations for hostilities on a 
large scale were made on both sides. But the British minister 
at Pekin offering to mediate, his friendly services were ac- 
cepted, 

c. A dispute between Japan and Peru, growing out of the 
seizure of a vessel belonging to the latter country, which was 
engaged in the coolie trade, was referred to the emperor of 
Russia for decision, 

d. A controversy between England and Portugal relative 
to the possession of the country around Delagoa bay, South 
Africa, was settled by referring the case to the adjudication 
of the president of the French Republic. 

But, unhappily, while many possible contests have been by 
these means avoided, such has not been the result in all the 
cases of dispute which have recently arisen. The wars of the 
last twenty years have been as baseless in their causes, and as 
bloody in execution, as any which preceded them. Thus the 
terrible war of 1870 between France and Germany, was brought 
about simply by a personal affront offered by the French ambas- 
sador to the Prussian king ! But let us now inquire what are 
the peculiar merits of method IV., — a Congress of Nations. 

The ])1an of sucli a congress, which was favored by Henry 
the Fourth, of France, found an able and more consistent 
exponent in William Penn. At a time (1693) when most of 
the nations of Europe were engaged in a general war, Penn 
made an effort to impress the minds of his contemporaries 
with a much more rational method of settling their differences. 
With this end in view, his produced "An Essay toward the 
present and future peace of Europe, by the establishment of 
an European diet, parliament or estates." In this remarkable 
essay, the writer, after contrasting the advantages of peace, 



452 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1872 

with the evils, expenses and desolations of war, shows that it 
should be the chief object of government to preserve the 
peace among its members, and, with that intent, the redress 
of grievances should be intrusted to impartial hands. Having 
suggested the expediency of applying to the controversies 
between nations the same principles as are applied to those 
between individuals, he therefore recommends the institution 
of a General Congress, by whom a code of laws for the regu- 
lation of their mutual intercourse should be agreed upon, and 
to which all should be required to submit. 

Penn's plan was taken but little notice of until about the 
year 1835, when it was revived by William Ladd, of New 
England, who added to the original proposition the sugges- 
tion of an International Court. This amended plan, which 
has been received with so much favor by all lovers of peace, 
is as follows : 

I. — A Congress of Ambassadors, from all those Christian 
and civilized nations who choose to send them, for the purpose 
of settling the principles of international law by a mutually 
binding compact and agreement ; and also of devising and 
promoting plans for the preservation of peace and amelio- 
rating the condition of man. 

2. — k. High Court of Nations, composed of the most able 
civilians in the world, to arbitrate or judge such cases, as, by 
the mutual consent of two or more contending nations, should 
be brought before it. 

These propositions were afterward extensively advocated by 
Elihu Burritt, and were presented by him at the great Peace 
Congresses which were held at Brussels, Paris, Frankfort and 
London, in the four years from 1848 to 185 1. 

In 1849, Richard Cobden, in response to more than 
200,000 petitioners, presented a motion in the British House 
of Commons, in favor of stipulate(i arbitration as a substitute 
for war, but it was not carried. The measure was also ear- 



1 873] ARBITRATION AND PEACE. 453 

nestly advocated by John Bright. Three years later, the 
legislatures of several of our states before whom the subject 
was brought, gave their votes in its favor. Little was then 
heard of the matter for the succeeding twenty years, until the 
success of the Geneva Arbitration, together with the consid- 
eration of the folly which led to the Franco-Prussian war 
and the barbarities accompanying it, brought the subject again 
prominently forward. 

In 1873, the House of Commons, on motion of Henry 
Richard, adopted a resolution recommending the Queen to 
take steps " to enter into communication with foreign ])owers, 
with a view to the further improvement of international law ; 
and the establishment of a general and permanent system of 
international arbitration." And in the following year, the 
House of Representatives of the United States recommended, 
by a unanimous vote, that arbitration should be made a 
national substitute for war ; and that thereafter, in all treaties 
made between the United States and foreign powers, provision 
should be made, if practicable, that " war shall not be declared 
by either of the contracting parties against the other until 
efforts have been made to adjust all alleged causes of difficulty 
by impartial arbitration." 

In continuation of the above favorable action on the part 
of the governments of Great Britain and the United States, 
the Italian parliament at Rome, without a dissenting voice, 
passed a motion in favor of international arbitration. The 
lower house of the Swedish Diet, as well as the parliament of 
Holland, have likewise cast their votes in its favor, while 
a similar resolution is pending in the Belgian Chamber of 
Representatives. 

Meanwhile, in 1873, ^ conference was held at Brussels, 
composed of thirty-five eminent publicists and jurists of 
different nations, who organized the "Association for the 
Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations;" and Eng- 



454 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1875 

lish, French and Italian branches were formed. The following 
year, the association met at Geneva, in the same hall in which 
the Arbitration Court had convened to decide the Alabama 
question. Finally, in 1875, ^ nieeting was held at the Hague, 
whereat committees were appointed to bring the subjects of 
arbitration and a proportionate reduction of armaments before 
the govern-ments of Christendom. Thus rests this vital matter 
to-day. The Christian duty of nations herein, may be com- 
prised in the one word — forbearance. Not alone between 
individuals, but between states and nations, is that admoni- 
tion of Scripture obligatory, which says, — "Forbearing one 
another in love." 

Notwithstanding what has here been said, the army and navy 
constitute, in many of their offices, too valuable a portion of 
the public service to be entirely dispensed with. But while we 
may with advantage give up the fortifications and gun-boats, 
and all munitions of war, yet an efficient and well-organized 
body of men will still be needed to carry on the operations 
of the land and coast survey, the weather signal service, the 
maintenance of lighthouses and life-saving stations, the re- 
moving of river and harbor obstructions, and other useful and 
beneficial i)ublic works. Our navy, too, may become the 
"white-winged messengers of peace," carrying timely aid to 
far-off lands to sufferers by famine and the flood. 

A FEW STATISTICS OF PROGRESS. 

In the year 1820, the population of the twenty states then 
comprising the United States, was 5,300,000 ; of which 
number, 1,000,000 were persons of color. By the census of 
1870, with 37 states and 10 territories, the population was as- 
certained to be upward of 38,500,000 ; of which total, 5,000,- 
000 were colored. The number of Chinese was 63,000 ; five- 
sixths of them being located in California, and the rest mostly 
in Oregon and Nevada. 



A FEW STATISTICS OF PROGRESS. 



455 



Much of this rapid increase of population has, of course, 
been due to immigration ; the largest accessions coming from 
the British Isles and Germany. The business prostration 
which prevailed in Great Britain after the great wars with 
Napoleon, together with the dissatisfaction caused by the op- 
pressive operation of the Corn Laws, led many of the laboring 
classes to seek homes elsewhere. Tlie repeal of the Corn Laws 
by parliament, in 1846 (removing thereby the import duty on 
grain), happened too late to arrest the outflow of emigrants, 
most of whom came to America. Still further impetus was, 
moreover, given to the movement, by the British commercial 
crisis of 1847, '^'"'^1 '^Y '•'''^ prevalence, at the same time, of the 
potato disease. While, in 1845, the number of emigrants 
leaving the United Kingdom amounted to but 93,000, in 1851 
the number had increased to 368,000, of whom just two-tliirds 
(244,000) settled in this country. 

The harsli usages of war, but especially compulsion to per- 
form military service, have, since the Franco-Prussian war of 
1870, driven tens of thousands of Germans to America, where 
there are no such statute requirements in operation. The 
I)lains of Pomerania in eastern Prussia, have lost large numbers 
of their inhabitants upon this account ; and so alarming became 
the movement for awhile, that the German government threat- 
ened to use coercive measures to prevent this wholesale de- 
population. 

The like causes, operating in Russia, have resulted in a 
similar expatriation of the Mennonites from the southern 
portion of that kingdom. Between 1873 ^"^ 1876, over 
1 0,000 of that sect have settled in America, principally in 
Kansas, Nebraska, Dacotah and Minnesota, and in the Mani- 
tol)a province of the Dominion of Canada. 

So great an influx of i)opulati()n, accompanied, as it was, 
l)v the l)uilding of railways and other internal improvements, 
exercised a great influence in ra|)id]y developing the states 



456 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1870 

of the West. At the same time reaping and mowing machines 
began to come into use. The first patent for a reaper was 
taken out in 1833, by Schnebly, of Maryland. The first suc- 
cessful mower, which came into use in 1831, was that of 
Manning, of New Jersey, followed by Ambler's improvement 
in 1834. These were greatly surpassed by those of Hussey 
and McCormick, which have gained a world-wide reputation. 
Other improved machinery, such as horse-rakes, and horse- 
and steam-threshers, have wonderfully facilitated the in-gath- 
ering of crops. The yield of the principal food crops of 
1870, was as follows: 



Indian Corn 

Oats . 

Wheat 

Barley 

Rye . 

Buckwheat 

Potatoes 



992 million Bushels. 
255 " 
230 " 

26 " 

15 « 



These seven crops were planted on 66j/( million acres. Nearly 
all of the product of barley, and a large portion of the rye, 
were converted into malt for beer and whiskey. 

Of tobacco there were 356,000 acres planted, yielding 263 
million pounds. But as the ways in which the hurtful weed 
can be usefully employed, are extremely limited, a decrease 
in this crop would be advantageous to the people generally. 

Cotton is the most valuable single product of American soil. 
An enormous increase in its production resulted, upon the 
invention of the cotton-gin or cleaner, by Eli Whitney. A 
native of Massachusetts, Whitney graduated at Yale College in 
1792, and, the same year, went to Georgia as a teacher. Ob- 
serving how slow and difficult was the work of separating by 
hand tlie cotton from the seed, he sought to devise some 
mechanical contrivance for this purpose, and in a few months 
was rewarded with success. By reason of this discovery, in 



1870] A FEW STATISTICS OF PROGRESS. 457 

the eight years from 1792 to 1800, the exports of cotton in- 
creased from 138,000 lbs., worth $30,000, to 18,000,000 lbs., 
worth $3,000,000. By the census of 1870, the cotton crop 
amounted to 3,100,000 bales, averaging 440 lbs. to the bale. 
Nearly two-thirds of this was exported ; the remainder was 
consumed in American mills. 

The number of cotton-7nanufacturing establishments, by the 
census, was 956. Massachusetts had the greatest number, 
191. Georgia stood first of the Southern states, having 34. 
Of woolen factories there were 2891. Pennsylvania came 
first, with 457 ; in the South, Kentucky led, with 125. 

Notwithstanding the laws which have been passed in New 
England, to prevent the employment of children in the cotton 
and woolen mills at too early an age, the indifference and cu- 
pidity of parents and employers have caused the statutes to be 
almost entirely disregarded. A Massachusetts report (1870) 
says, " The mills all over the state, the shops in city and town, 
are full of children deprived of their right to such education 
as will fit' them for the possibilities of their after-life, and no- 
body thinks of obeying the school laws." In Rhode Island, 
it appeared by the census of 1870, that the number of those 
who could neither read nor write was five times greater than 
it was in 1850 1 Not ignorance alone, but depravity and overt 
crime result from this species of semi-enslavement. To obvi- 
ate these evils, compulsory education is generally recommended, 
in addition to the enactment and enforcement of stringent 
laws to prevent the too early employment of the children. 

The first patent for a sewing-machine, was granted to J. J. 
Greenough, of Washington, but the first really practical one, 
was that patented by Elias Howe in 1846. This was followed 
by the machines of Wlieeler and Wilson, Grover and Baker, 
Singer and Co., and several others. In 1870, the number 
manufactured in this country amounted to nearly 500,000. 
The coal yield of 1870 was estimated at 37 million tons, 
u 39 



458 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1870 

Pennsylvania producing tliree-fourtlis of the total. The yield 
of iron ore was very nearly 4 million tons, one-third of it 
being mined in Pennsylvania. The discovery, made in 1861, 
that coal-oil ox petroleum, existed in the western part of Penn- 
Fylvania and in West Virginia, in such great quantities as to 
become a valuable commercial product, caused for a time a 
high state of excitement and much speculation. A great 
number of companies were organized, but the stock of many 
soon became of little or no value. Nevertheless, the business 
assumed large proportions, so that petroleum presently became 
one of the principal articles of export. 

0{ precious 7netals, the yield of 1871 was estimated at 66 
million dollars. Nevada and California each produced nearly 
a third of the total ; the territories of Montana, Idaho and 
Colorado, most of the remainder. 

Of the very great number of American inventions useful in 
the arts, none has proved capable of such extensive and varied 
applications, as the vulcanization of india-rubber : that is to 
say, its hardening by combination with sulphur. This dis- 
covery was made by Charles Goodyear, of New Haven, about 
the year 1835. A {&\\ of the many uses to which this sub- 
stance can lie applied, are the manufacture of water-proof 
boots and overshoes, flexible gas-pipes and water-pipes, buffers 
for railway carriages, mats for doors and rooms, machinery- 
belts, braces, telegraph cables, hats, harness, wheels, and as 
washers in the fitting of countless sorts of apparatus and ma- 
chinery. The rubber, combined with finely divided sand, as 
well as sulphur, is made into ink-erasers ; with tar and sulphur, 
it forms a mixture which is run into moulds, and hardens with 
the lustre and blackness of jet. In this manner are made 
brackets, combs, pencil-cases, thimbles, and a great variety 
of useful and ornamental articles. 

Tlie Electric Telegraph was invented by Samuel T. B. 
Morse, of New York, in 1832, and exhibited to Congress in 



iSjo] A FEW STATISTICS OF PROGRESS. 459 

1837; but it was not until 1843 that that body agreed to ex- 
tend aid for an experimental line to be built from Washington 
to Baltimore. The alphabet of Morse is a series of dots and 
dashes. It has been superseded in many places by House's 
instrument, which prints the letters themselves. There are 
now over 75,000 miles of telegraph in operation in this 
country. The first ocean telegraph cable between Europe and 
America was successfully laid and operated in 1866. Five 
lines are now in operation, four from Ireland and one from 
France. 

The first steamboat constructed in the United States to 
carry passengers, was built at Philadelphia in 1787, by John 
Fitch. The motor was a low-pressure engine, and the boat 
was propelled by a paddle-wheel at the stern. Oliver Evans, 
of the same city, in 1804, first practically applied to a-boat, 
the high-pressure engine ; but this craft was merely used for 
dock-dredging purposes. The first really successful applica- 
tion of the power, was that of Robert Fulton, whose boat, 
the Clermont, a small side-wheel steamer, in 1807 ascended 
the Hudson, from New York to Albany. Improvements made 
in 1S15 by Robert L. Stevens, resulted in securing a higher 
rate of speed. 

In 1838, the first ocean steamship from England, the Sirius, 
arrived in the harbor of New York. 

The first railroad in the United States was constructed in 
1826. It connected the town of Quincy, Massachusetts, with 
Neponset, and was but three miles in length. It was built to 
supply the granite for Bunker Hill monument. The cars were 
drawn by horses. A railway was built the next year, 1827, at 
Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, the cars being raised by horse- 
power to the summit of the mountain, and descending by 
gravity. In 1828, twelve miles of the Baltimore and Ohio 
railroad were built and operated as a passenger railway. The 
same year the first locomotive engine used in America (but built 



46o HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. [1875 

in England, by Stephenson), was run upon a short road of 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, connecting with 
their mines. At the West Point foundry. New York, the first 
American built locomotive was constructed. It was operated 
on the South Carolina railway in 1831. Other roads were 
constructed in that and the preceding year. The total length 
of railway lines open for traffic in 1875, ^^^ about 70,000 
miles. 

The first Pacific Railroad was built principally between the 
years 1866 and 1868. Lavish grants of money and of land 
were conceded by the government to two chartered companies: 
the Union Pacific, controlling the eastern section of 1032 
miles from Omaha, Nebraska, to Ogden City, Utah ; and 
the Central Pacific, or western section of 881 miles, from 
Ogden to San Francisco. The money bounty advanced by 
the government in aid of the construction, and for which 
second mortgage bonds were issued by the companies, aver- 
aged $30,000 per mile ; making a total of 50 million dollars. 
The company had also issued first mortgage bonds to the same 
amount. Portions of the road were constructed with extraor- 
dinary celerity, as much as a mile or more of track being laid 
in one day. The cost of construction, however, of the Union 
Pacific railroad, was not so great as the means in hand. The 
company therefore, having a plethora of resources, by a fraudu- 
lent process contracted with itself for an ostensible price, to 
build its own road. Many members of Congress were impli- 
cated in furthering this disgraceful transaction, which involved 
millions of dollars, and was known as the " Credit Mobilier" 
scheme. 

The Northern Pacific railway, projected a little later, was 
intended to connect Duluth, at the west end of Lake Superior, 
with Puget Sound. Congress granted, in aid of it, over 50 
million acres of land, — an area equal to ten states of the size 
of Massachusetts. Millions of dollars of the bonds of the 



1876] A FEW STATISTICS OF FROGJ^ESS. 461 

company were disposed of, when, in 1873, i'^^ chief projectors 
failed. Much financial distress and many failures followed, 
and business generally experienced greater depression than 
had been known since the termination of the Civil War. 

This depressed condition of affairs still continues. Never 
before, in our country's history, have the lamentable results 
of overtrading, speculation, the haste to be rich even at the 
sacrifice of integrity, been so marked as is the case at this 
day. Gambling in gold and stocks, and even in wheat and 
corn — the very necessaries of life — is largely prevalent in the 
leading cities ; while startling defalcations by officers high in 
places of trust, are of every-day occurrence. And now, in 
this Centennial Year of American Independence, when our 
country will exhibit the evidences of her progress to all the 
nations of the globe, what have we to show of a more exalted 
sentiment of honor and integrity than prevailed of yore, or 
of a more faithful administration of public duties? Further- 
more, while we behold exhibited the products of our mines, 
the fabrics from our factories and looms, do we feel that we 
have sufficiently regarded the low estate of the toilers who 
have helped us to all this wealth? that we have equally desired 
for ourselves and for them, a growth in holiness and in the 
knowledge of Him from whom all blessings flow ? It is of 
small moment that we should be accounted great, if we be 
not earnestly engaged to reap those riches which are more 
enduring. 



zr 



INDEX. 



Abercrombie, General, 286. 
Acadie, colonization of, 107. 

French Neutrals of, 275. 
Adams, John, 304, 326, 328, 333, 379. 
Adams, John Quincy, 362, 369, 376, 

382. 
Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 268. 
Alabama admitted, 370. 
Alabama, career of the, 419. 

Claims Commission, 448. 
Alarcon, expedition of, 61. 
Alaska, 375, 431. 
Albany, settlement of, 134. 
Albemarle settlements, early, 176, 179. 
Algiers, war with, 365. 
Amendment, Thirteenth, 424. 

Fourteenth, 430. 

Fifteenth, 433. 
America, discovery of, 14, 25, 
Amerigo Vespucci, 45. 
Amherst, General, 287. 
Amidas and Barlow at Roanoke, 84. 
Andre, Major, 314. 
Andros, Sir Edmund, 187, 209, 229. 
Antinomian controversy, 141, 145. 
Ami-Slavery agitation, 402. 
Arbitration and peace, 448. 
Archdale, John, of Carolina, 230. 
Argall, Samuel (Captain), 99, 109. 
Arkansas admitted, 390. 
Arnold, treason of, 314. 
Ashburton Treaty, 393. 
Assiento, the, 251. 
Astoria, 375, 397. 

Bacon's Rebellion, 171. 
lialboa discovers the Pacific, 56. 
Baltimore founded, 268. 
Baltimore, Lord, 161, 218. 
Bank of North America, 316. 

of the United States, 366, 387. 

troubles, 389, 392. 
Bankrupt laws, 392, 432. 



Banks and bills of credit, 244. 
Banks, National, 421. 
Baptist Indian agencies, 439. 
Benezet, Anthony, 270. 
Bennington, battle of, 306. 
Berkeley in Virginia, 164, 168. 
Black Hawk war, 387. 
Boone, Daniel, 296. 
Boston Massacre, 292. 

Port Bill, 293. 

settlement of, 140. 
Braddock's defeat, 275. 
Brainerd, David and John, 263. 
Brandywine, battle of, 307. 
Brazil, discovery of, 45. 
Brazilian coast, the French on, 69. 
Breckenridge, John C, 407, 410. 
British-Spanish war of 1739, 257. 
Brooklyn, settlement of, 127. 
Brown, John, raid of, 410. 
Buchanan, James, 407. 
Bull Run or Manassas, 413,418. 
Bunker Hill, battle of, 301. 
Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, 

307- 
Burlington Woods, treaty in, 188. 
Burr, Aaron, 336, 338, 341. 

Cabeza DE Vaca, adventures of, 61. 
Cabot, John, 42. 
Cabot, Sebastian, 42. 79. 
Calhoun, John C, 382. 
California, emigration to, 400. 

admitted as a state, 404. 
California coast, Cabrillo on the, 83. 

Drake on the, 83. 
Canada conquered from the French, 
285. 

French occupation of, 106. 

rebellion of 1837, 390. 
Cancello, the monk, in Florida, 66. 
Cape Cod discovered by Gosnold, 89. 
Caribs, extinction of the, 58. 

463 



464 



INDEX. 



Carolina settled, 176. 
Cartier, voyages of, 47. 
Census of United States, 451. 
Centennial Celeljration, 461. 
Chanibersburg, burning of, 424. 
Champlain in Canada, 107, no. 

Lake, battle of, 360. 
Chancellorsville, battle of, 421. 
Charleston, fire of 1740, 258. 

settled, 181. 

sieges of, 303, 422, 425. 
Cherokees, removal of the, 383. 
Cheyenne war, 438. 
Chicago founded, 388. 

fire, 432. 
Chickasaws, French war with the, 250. 
Children in mills, employment of, 457. 
Chinese in the United States, 451. 
Cincinnati founded, 337. 
Civil damage acts, 445. 
Clay, Henry, 365, 376, 386, 404. 
Clayborne, of Kent Island, 162, 165. 
Coal and coal-oil yield, 458. 
Colfax, Schuyler, 432. 
Coligny, the Huguenot Chief, 68. 
Colonization Society, American, 365. 

English, 374. 
Colorado admitted as a state, 433. 

early dwellers in, 31. 
Columbus, Christopher, 21. 
Compensated emancipation, 407. 
Congregational Indian agencies, 439. 
Congregationalists oppose slavery, 

270. 
Connecticut, settlement of, 123, 127, 

133, 146, 197. 
Constitution formed, the, 323. 
Corinth, battle of, 419. 
Cornplanter, the Seneca, 355. 
Coronado, march of, 61. 
Cortereal, voyage of 45. 
Cortez conquers Mexico, 54. 
Cotton gin invented, 456. 
Cotton in Virginia, first, 101. 

yield of, 456. 
Credit Mobilier scheme, 460. 
Creek war, 358. 
Creeks, removal of the, 380. 
Cuba, conquest of 28. 

discovery of 25. 
Culpeper in Virginia. 170, 174. 
Currency, early colonial, 151, 164. 

Dacota us. Sec Sioux. 



Dare, Virginia, 88, 

Davis, Jefferson, 411, 426. 

De Ayllon's voyage for slaves, 59. 

Decatur, Stephen, 340, 365. 

Declaration of Independence, 304. 

Deerfield, massacre of, 235. 

De Fuca, Juan, on the Oregon coast, 

83. 
De Gourgues in Florida, 77. 
De Kalb, Baron, 314. 
Delaware, Lord, 96. 
Delaware organized, 219, 226. 
De Monts colonizes Acadie, 107. 
De Soto, Ferdinand, 63. 
Detroit founded by the French, 235. 
District of Columbia, 335. 
Douglas, Stephen A., 405, 410. 
Drake, Sir Francis, 82, 87. 
Duelling, 339. 
Dunmore, Lord, 295, 301. 
Dutch Reformed Indian agencies, 439. 

Education, 434. 

compulsory, 457. 
Educational fund bill, 436. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 263. 
Effingham, governor of Virginia, 175, 

195- 
Eliot and the Praying Indians, 200. 
Emancipation, compensated, 407. 

proclamation, 420. 
Embargo Act, 343. 
Emigration to America, causes of, 455. 
Endicott, John, 139, 148, 155. 
Episcopalian Indian agencies, 439. 
Erie, Lake, battle of, 357. 
Eutaw Springs, battle of, 316. 

Factories, children in, 457. 
Fernandez discovers Yucatan, 53. 
Fillmore, iVIillard, 401. 
Financial troubles, 320, 389. 
Fires, great, 388, 432. 
Five Nations. See Iroquois. 
Fletcher, the royal governor, 220, 224. 
Florida admitted as a state, 396. 

ceded to the United States, 369. 

discovered by Ponce de Leon, 52. 
Fox, George, in America, 180, 199. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 267. 270, 294. 
Franklin's negotiations, 297,308, 318. 

plan of a federal Union, 274. 
Frecdmen's Bureau, 434. 
P'remonl, John C, 399, 414. 



INDEX. 



465 



French and English colonies at war, 

221, 234, 265, 273. 
French Neutrals of Acadie, 275. 
Friends' Indian agencies, 439. 

Indian policy, 436. 

in Maryland and Va., 168, 169. 

in New England, persecution of, 

153- 

in North Carolina, 177, 179. 

in West Jersey, 187. 

prohibit slavery, 270. 
Frobisher, expeditions of, 80. 
Frontenac, gov. of Canada, 193, 222. 
Fugitive slave law, 404. 

Gallatin, Albert, 331, 362. 

Gama, Vasco da, 45. 

Geneva Court of Arbitration, 448. 

Georgia founded by Oglethorjje, 253. 

German immigration, 237, 455. 

German town, battle of, 307. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 421. 

Gilbert, Humphrey, voyages of, 81. 

Gnadenhiitten, massacre at, 283. 

Gomez, voyages of, 59. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, voyage of, 89. 

Grant, General, 415, 422, 432. 

Great awakening, the, 256. 

Greenland, discovery of, 16. 

Grenville, Sir Richard, at Roanoke, 

85- 
Grijalva, voyage of, 53. 
Guilford Court-House, battle of, 316. 

Halifax, construction of fort at, 

273- 
Hamilton, Alexander, 326, 338. 
Harrison, General, 349, 354, 391. 
Hartford Convention, 362. 
Harvard College founded, 150. 
Hawkins, Sir John, 75. 
Hayti, or Hispaniola, discovery of, 25. 
Hennepin, explorations of, 193. 
Henry, Patrick, 291. 
Henry, Prince, of Portugal, 20. 
Historical study, purposes of, ii. 
Hopkins, Samuel (Dr.), 270. 
Hudson, Henry, 118. 
Huguenots, the, 67, 182. 
Hurons, Champlain assists the, no. 
dispersed by the Iroquois, 116. 

Iceland and the Northmen, 14. 
Illinois admitted, 370. 
U* 



Indian policy, new, 436. 
Indian walk, the, 260. 
Indiana admitted into the Union, 365. 
Indians and rum, 116, 119, 128, 189, 
202, 281, 285, 355, 431. 

North American, account of, 34. 
Internal improvements, 377. 
Iowa admitted into the Union, 396. 
Iron ore yield, 458. 
Iroquois, account of the, 38. 

disperse the Hurons, 116. 

French wars with the, no, 195. 

treaties, 195, 226, 247, 265, 274, 
281. 
Isles of Shoals, 107. 

Jackson, Andrew, 358, 363, 369, 

■ 376, 383- 
Jamaica, Columbus wrecked on, 28. 
Jamestown burnt, 173. 

founded, 93. 
Java, the Dutch in, 262. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 304, 326, 333, 336, 

341. 379- 
Jesuits in New France, 109, 114, 190. 

in Paraguay, 115. 
Johnson, Andrew, 415, 424, 429. 

Sir William, 267, 277, 288. 
Joliet on the Mississippi, 192, 
Jones, John Paul, 312. 

Kansas admitted, 421. 

border troubles, 406. 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, 405. 
Keith, George, 219. 
Kentucky admitted into the Union, 
328. 

Boone in, 296. 
Kidd, Captain, 225. 
Kieft's Indian wars, 126. 
King Philip's war, 202. 
King's Mountain, battle of, 314. 
Kosciusko, 306. 

Labrador discovered by the Cabots, 

43- 
Lafayette, Marquis de, 307, 375. 
La Salle, voyages of, 193. 
Las Casas, testimony of, 55. 
Laudonniere in Florida, 73. 
Law of nations, codification of, 450. 
Law's Mississippi Company, 242. 
Lay, Benjamin, 270. 
Lee, Robert E., 417, 421, 423, 426. 



466 



INDEX. 



Lescarbot in Acadie, io8. 

Lewis and Clarke, explorations of, 

397- 
Lexington, battle of, 300. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 410, 420, 424. 

assassination of, 426. 
I^ogan and Dunmore's war, 295. 
Lookout Mountain, battle of, 422. 
Louisburg, sieges of, 266, 286. 
Louisiana, acquisition of, 337. 

named by La Salle, 194. 

settled by the French, 234. 
Louisville founded, 328. 
Lundy's Lane, battle of, 360. 

Madison, James, 336, 348, 354. 

Magellan, voyage of, 60. 

Maine settled, 142, 187, 206, 208. 

admitted into the Union, 370. 

boundary, 393. 

Liquor Law, 444. 
Marquette on the Mississippi, 192. 
Maryland, settlement of, 161, 228. 
Mason and Slidell, capture of, 415. 
Mason's-and-Dixon's line, 294. 
Massachusetts Bay colony, 139. 
McClellan, General, 414, 417. 
Menendez in Florida, 75. 
Mennonites in Pennsylvania, 267. 

coming of the, 455. 
Merrimack and Monitor, 416. 
Meteoric shower of 1832, 387. 
Methodist Indian agencies, 439. 
Mexico, Spanish conquest of, 54. 

war with, 396. 
Miami war, 328. 

Michigan admitted as a state, 390. 
Minnesota admitted, 407. 
Mississippi admitted, 370. 

Company, Law's, 242. 

discovery of the, 63, 192. 
Missouri compromise, 370, 405. 
Mobile located by the French, 235. 
Modocs, the, 441. 
Molasses act, 272. 
Monmouth C. H., battle of, 308. 
Monroe, james, 346, 364, 367, 380. 

Doctrine, 375. 
Mont Desert island, 107. 109. 
Montcalm, Marquis of, 279, 286. 
Montreal named, 49. 
Moravian Indian missions, 263, 280, 
Moravians settle Bethlehem, 259. 

settle in Georgia, 255. 



Morris, Robert, 316. 
Mound-Builders, 29. 

Narvaez in Florida, 60. 
Natchez tribe, account of the, 39. 

exterminated, 249. 
National Debt, 427. 
Nebraska admitted, 432. 
Nevada admitted, 421. 
New England, settlement of, 135. 
Newfoundland, discovery of, 45. 

early fisheries of, 81. 
New Hampshire, 141, 207, 208, 225, 

247, 259. 
New Haven founded, 147. 

merged with Connecticut, 198. 
New Jersey settled, 186. 
New Mexico, early explorations in, 61, 
82. 

ceded to the U. S., 399. 
New Netherland, settlement of, 118, 

185. 
New Orleans founded, 243. 

battle of, 363. 

taken by Unionists, 419. 
New Sweden, 124, 132, 167, 214. 
New York settled, 118, 133, 185. 

great fire at, 388. 
Norridgewock war, 245. 
North Carolina settled, 176. 

regulators, 296. 
North-Eastern boundary, 392. 
North-Western boundary, 397. 
Northmen's discovery of America, 14. 
Nova Scotia grant, 143. 
Nullification, 386. 

Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, 

234. 
Ohio admitted into the Union, 337. 

company, 273. 
Oregon boundary, 397. 

admitted into the Union, 407. 

Pacific railroads, 460. 

Paine, Thomas, 320. 

Papal claim to the New World, 41. 

Party patronage, 336, 385. 

Pastorius, the protest of, 270. 

Paxton Boys, 282. 

Peabody Fund, 435. 

Penn, William, and New Jersey, 187. 

in Pennsylvania, 210, 225. 
Penn's essay on Arbitration, 451. 



INDEX. 



467 



Pennsylvania, settlement of, 210. 

opposed to war, 224, 236, 267. 
Peonage in Virginia, 104. 
Pequod war, 148. 
Peru, conquest of, 57. 
Philadelphia founded by Penn, 215. 
Phipps, Sir William, 223. 
Piiysical aspect of the country, 13. 
Pierce, Franklin, 405. 
Pilgrims, landing of the, 137. 
Pineda in the Gulf of Mexico, 56. 
Piracy suppressed, 241, 375. 
Pittsburg founded, 2S7. 
Pizarro conquers Peru, 57. 
Pocahontas, g^, 99. 
Polk, [ames K., 396. 
Ponce de Leon, invader of Florida, 52. 
Pontiac, conspiracy of, 282, 289. 
Port Royal (N. S.), 107, 109. 

(S. C), named by Ribault, 71. 
Portuguese explorations, 45. 
Presbyterian Indian agencies, 439. 
Presbyterians settle East Jersey, igo. 
Pring, Michael, voyage of, 89. 
Printing-press in Massachusetts, 150. 

in Vu'ginia, 175. 
Providence founded, 145. 
Puelilos, or Village Indians, 40. 
Pulaski, Count, 307, 311. 
Puritan Pilgrims, 135. 

Quakers. See Friends. 

Quebec founded by Champlain, no. 

taken from the French, 287. 
Queenstown, battle of, 352. 

Railroads, first American, 459. 
Raleigh and Newfoundland expedi- 
tions, 81. 
and Roanoke settlements, 84. 
Recollets in New France, 112, 191, 

193- 
Reconstruction, 429. 
Redemptioners, 271. 
Regulators in North Carolina, 296. 
Red Jacket, the Seneca, 355. 
Regicides in New England, 197. 
Rhode Island, 143, 198, 225. 

Suffragists, 395. 
Ribault, expeditions of, 70, 75, 76. 
Richmond, advances on, 413, 417, 

421,423. 
Right of search, 331, 34;^. 
Roberval, viceroy of New France, 50. 



Roman Catholic Indian agencies, 439. 
Rum prohibited in Georgia, 256. 
Ryswick, peace of, 224. 

Sable islanders, 106. 
Salem witchcraft, 226. 
San Francisco, harbor of, named, 

83. 
Santander's plan of colonization, 

66. 
Saratoga, Burgoyne's surrender at, 

307- 
Sargent and the Housatonics, 263. 
Savannah founded, 255. 
Schwenckfeldians, the, 268. 
Scott, Winfield, 360, 398, 405, 414. 
Secession of the South, 411. 
Seminoles, the, 233, 368, 388. 
Seven Cities of Cibola, 61. 
Seward, Secretary, 425, 426. 
Sewing-machine, inventian of, 457. 
Shackamaxon, treaty at, 214. 
Shays' Rebellion, 321. 
Shenandoah valley raids, 423, 424. 
Sherman's "march to the sea," 424. 
Sioux, account of the, 39. 
Six Nations. See Iroquois. 
Slave trade, African, 252. 

Newport and the, 270. 

prohibited, 370, 393. 
Slaves, English decisions as to, 295. 
Slavery agitation, 320, 402. 

and the Constitution, 324. 

at St. Augustine, 76. 

in Carolina, 182, 240. 

in Georgia, 257. 

in New York, 132. 

in San Domingo, 58. 

introduced by Columbus, 27. 

in Virginia, 103, 170. 

prohibited by Congregationalists 
and Friends, 270. 
Smith, John, Captain, 93, 135. 
South Carolina settled, 181. 
Spanish conquests in America, 51. 
Stamp Act, 291. 
Standish, Miles, 138. 
Statistics of progress, 451. 
St. Augustine founded, 76. 
.Steamboats in America, first, 459. 
Stephens, Alexander H., 411,425. 
Steuben, Baron, 308. 
St. Lawrence, Gulf of, explored, 45. 

Cartier ascends the, 47. 

-h 



468 



INDEX. 



St. Louis founded, 370. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 131. 
Sugar-cane introduced, 338. 

Tariff, 381, 386. 

Taylor, General, 396, 401. 

Tea refused by the Americans, 293. 

Tecumseh, 349, 354, 357. 

Telegraph, invention of the, 459. 

Temperance question, the, 443. 

Tennessee admitted, 328. 

early settlements in, 296. 

Ft. Loudoun in, 279. 
Texas, annexation of, 393. 
Tippecanoe, battle of, 350. 
Tobacco crop in 1870, 456. 

discovered in Carolina, 86. 

in Virginia and Maryland, 99, 
163. 
Trenton, battle of, 305. 
Tripoli, war with, 340. 
Tuscaroras join the Iroquois, 238. 
Tyler, John, 391. 

United Brethren's Greenland 
Mission, 18. 
colonies of New England, 150. 
Utah organized as a territory, 404. 
Utrecht, peace of, 237. 

Van Buren, Martin, 389. 
Vane, Sir Henry, 141, 152. 
Velasquez, governor of Cuba, 28, 

54- 
Vermont, 247, 295, 323, 328. 
Verrazzani, discoveries of, 46. 
Vicksburg, siege of, 422. 
Ville-gagnon, Nicholas de, 67. 
Virginia, colonization of, 91. 

so called by Raleigh, 85. 

society, organization of, 169. 
Vulcanization of India-rubber, 458. 



Waldron and the Indians, 207, 221. 
War cost, 206, 238, 319, 399, 427, 437, 
438. 

immigration resulting from, 455. 

of the Revolution, 300. 

of 1812. 351. 

of the Rebellion, 412. 

Polynesians forsake, 170. 

provoked by the daily press, 416. 
Washington before the Revolution, 
274, 27s, 287. 

declared president, 326, 328. 

retires to Mount Vernon, 318. 

death of, 335. 
Washington City laid out, 335. 

burnt (1814), 361. 

treaty of, 448. 
Wayne, Anthony, 312, 329. 
Webster, Daniel, 386, 392. 
Wesleys in Georgia, 255. 
West Virginia admitted, 421. 
Weymouth, voyage of, 90. 
Whiskey Insurrection, 330. 
Whitefield in America, 256. 
White Plains, battle of, 305. 
Wilkes exploring expedition, 391. 
William and Mary College, 229. 
Williams, Roger, 143, 149, 152, 198. 
Wilmot Proviso, 400. 
Wilson, Henry, 432, 433. 
Winthrop of Connecticut, 146, 197. 

of Massachusetts, 139. 
Wisconsin admitted, 401. 
Wolfe, General, 286, 287. 
Women's temperance movement, 446. 
Woolman, John, and slavery, 270, 

271. 
Wyoming, massacre of, 309. 

YORKTOWN, Cornwallis at, 317. 

Zeisberger, David, 280. 



THE END. 



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